Action Tips: Prevent Cholera

Cholera may not be a problem in your parents' neighborhood, but as soon you hop a plane to volunteer in a developing country, you'll need to start thinking about it. How do you make sure that you and nobody else in the community you are working in contracts it?

Sanitation

• Get rid of dead bodies far from water sources. Wash your hands after handling.
• Build sanitation facilitaries more than 30 meters away from any water source.
• Make a way for people to wash their hands after using the toilet.
• Encourage people to wash hands after cooking.

Water

Don't drink water before you treat it. First, filter the water through fabric, sand or another material. Then either:

• boil the water
• add lime or lemon
• add chlorine

Food

• Only eat shellfish and fish if they are well-cooked.
• Don't mix cooked foods with raw foods like salad.
• Infected people shouldn't handle others' food.
• Wash fruits and vegetables in treated water before eating them. Peel the food if there is no water.
• Don't have people eat from a communal or shared container.