 Over 100,000 people die from cholera each year, and yet with treatment at least 99% would survive. So what is cholera, and why are people still dying from it if it can be treated? Cholera is an acute diarrheal infection that is caused by ingesting dirty water or food contaminated by a nasty bacterium called Vibrio cholera. In 12 hours and 5 days after ingesting the contaminated food or water, the symptoms kick in. For most people, maybe up to 4 million a year, the diarrhoea is mild and treatable. Clean water and rehydration sachets do the trick to make sure the patient stays hydrated. It's a simple and low-cost treatment. More severe cases might need antibiotics and intravenous fluids to keep control of the dehydration. However, if left untreated, diarrhoea resulting in severe dehydration leads to the death of 100,000 people each year. OK, so if dirty water is the problem, let's make sure everyone has access to safe, clean water? Yes, absolutely, that's the dream. Access to clean water, proper sanitation and cholera vaccines are straightforward prevention techniques for cholera. However, more than 2 billion people drink water from sources that are contaminated with feces and 2.4 billion people don't have basic sanitation facilities. Cholera was first recorded in 1563 in India and with many outbreaks since then, we've been contending with cholera for hundreds of years and due to poor sanitation, limited public health funding and failures, conflict or natural disasters, cholera continues to live on globally today. But the good news is that the World Health Organization, in partnership with other international agencies and academic institutions, have set a 2030 target to reduce the deaths from cholera by 90%, with it being completely eliminated in 20 countries. The program is called the Global Task Force on Cholera Control, GTFCC. So how are they planning on doing this? As well as improving access to clean water and sanitation, the plan is also to educate people about hygiene and healthy behavior and to offer a vaccination program. This obviously comes at a cost. The World Bank is an incredible global organization with 189 member countries that works towards reducing poverty and building prosperity in developing countries. They're providing the GTFCC with the funds to try to reduce cholera by 90% by 2030. So there we have cholera, an easy and cheaply treatable bacterial infection that causes a cute diarrhea. Clean water, adequate sanitation and good hygiene are simple solutions to prevent cholera. Let's hope by 2030 we don't have to learn about cholera anymore because it would have been eradicated. If you liked the video, give it a thumbs up and don't forget to subscribe, comment below if you have any questions. Why not check out our Fuse School app as well? Until next time.