Illustration of a cholera patient during an epidemic in 1831 in Berlin. From Symptome der Asiatichen cholera (Sympthoms of the Asian cholera) written in 1832 by Robert Froriep. Cholera is an acute illness caused by the Gram-negative bacterium Vibrio cholerae which colonizes the small bowel. Cholera starts with diarrhea and vomiting between one and five days after infection. Up to 500ml of fluid may be lost each hour and, if not replaced, death follows within only a few hours due to dehydration. Cholera has caused many epidemics in the Indian continent and seven global pandemics in the last 160 years.