Comparing Influenza and Cholera

Influenza and cholera are two very different diseases, yet they have their similarities. Cholera is caused by a bacterium called Vibrio Cholerae and usually lives in water whereas Influenza, more commonly known as the flu or grippe, is a disease cause by several different viruses so people can have it more than once.

The differences between a virus and a bacterium are thus:
* Bacteria are unicellular, Viruses have no cells.
* Bacteria have DNA and RNA floating in cytoplasm, and a cell wall and membrane. Viruses have DNA or RNA enclosed in a protein coat.
* Bacteria have Ribosomes, whereas viruses do not.
* Bacterial infections are localised, yet viruses are systemic.

As you can see, there are a load of differences between viruses and bacteria, however there are some similarities. For instance they both share the fact that they don’t have a nucleus.

In the topic of symptoms of these diseases, Cholera is fairly different from Flu. Cholera is an acute intestinal illness which causes stomach aches, very watery and continuous diarrhoea and vomiting. The diarrhoea and vomiting, in turn, can cause very bad dehydration, leading to death if untreated. Flu symptoms include cough, sore throat, muscle aches and pains, fever, headache, and rarely vomiting and diarrhoea. Influenza can also lead to other diseases, such as pneumonia. This makes it especially dangerous to young children and old people. In other words, there is a big difference, apart from the rare case of D and V that can occur with flu.

Transmission is a key difference between these two diseases. Influenza can pass from one person to another very easily. It is most commonly spread by the microscopic droplets of mucus and fluid that are sent into the air when the sick person coughs or sneezes. Cholera is contracted by eating foods or drinking water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio Cholerae. Sometimes, people get cholera from eating fish that is not cooked enough. They can also get it if they eat food or drink that was polluted with the diarrhoea from people who have cholera.

Cholera and influenza affect your body in different ways for instance, the bacterium Vibrio Cholerae will pass through your digestive system, surviving the acidic conditions of the stomach, until it gets to your colon. Here the bacteria will use their flagellum to propel themselves through the mucus membrane of the small Intestine and colon. Once they hit the wall of the gut, they release toxins that will stop the intake of water, giving the sufferer watery diarrhoea. This will continue to happen until the bacteria die, or get flushed out of your system. The influenza virus does a very different job. After you ingest or inhale these viruses, the individual virus will get to work. One will land on a cell, and then inject genetic material into that cell. The genetic material will make copies, assemble them, and then release them by bursting the cell wall, killing the cell. This will happen again and again, quickly spreading around the host. The symptoms we feel are our body trying to combat this spread of cell killers.

In conclusion, there are a lot of strong differences between Influenza and Cholera. For instance, Cholera is a bacterium whereas Influenza. Also the transmission is very different. Cholera taking the faecal-oral path way, and influenza taking many different approaches like inhaling drops of infected mucus. What they do to their hosts is also different. A V.Chorea bacterium will burrow into your gut releasing toxins to stop the intake of water; an influenza virus will multiply itself through the host’s cell, while killing them at the same time.