It is feared that a pensioner has passed away after contracting cholera – in what would be the first case of its kind in Britain for 125 years
The unnamed father of two, who was in his 80s, died on Tuesday at the George Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton with his family beside him.
He had fallen ill around a week ago at home and was admitted to the Warwickshire-based hospital when his condition quickly deteriorated.
There were reportedly initial fears that he had caught the waterborne disease cholera, which killed thousands in the United Kingdom during the Victorian era and continues to cause deaths in Africa.
If so, it would have been the first time a British person had died of cholera since 1901.
The UK Health Security Agency later confirmed that the pensioner contracted a type of bacteria called Non-toxigenic Vibrio cholerae.
A source close to the deceased’s family told The Sun: ‘They have no idea how he caught it. They were asked by doctors if he’d been abroad recently, but he hadn’t. He lived at home with his youngest son.
‘It was incredibly dramatic. Doctors called them on Sunday and said he could have just hours to live. He clung on until Wednesday but withered away before their eyes.’
WHAT IS CHOLERA?
Cholera is an infection that can cause severe diarrhoea which is, usually, no longer found in the United Kingdom.
During the Victorian era, it killed more than 100,000 people between 1831 and 1865.
According to the NHS, the disease can be caught from drinking unclean water, eating food that has been in dirty water or handled by an infected person.
Symptoms include diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and dehydration.
The main treatment for the disease is to drink fluids, particularly rehydration solution.
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RIP
CHOLera in uk too?