Selected WHO publications of related interest

Further information on these and other World Health Organization publications can be obtained from Distribution and Sales, World Health Organization, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland,

* Prices in developing countries are 70% of those listed here.

Almost 100 countries worldwide are still affected by cholera and experience has shown that its introduction into a country is impossible to prevent Unchecked, an outbreak of the disease rapidly reaches epidemic proportions and may result in many deaths. However, improved methods for surveillance, diagnosis, and treatment, coupled with better standards of sanitation and personal hygiene, can significantly limit the spread of infection and minimize the public health problem.

In their comprehensive treatment of cholera control, these guidelines cover the transmission of infection and means of preventing it, the essential preparations that should be made by health facilities for - and their responses to - a real or threatened epidemic, the medical supplies that should be available, management of patients, measures to contain the outbreak, epidemiological studies, the role of the laboratory in diagnosis, and long-term preventive activities. Treatment of cholera patients, with particular emphasis on the rational use of antimicrobial drugs and the prevention and control of dehydration, is dealt with in detail in an annex, as are isolation and identification of the cholera vibrio. The importance of safe drinking-water, careful food preparation, and scrupulous personal hygiene is stressed repeatedly, and the book includes numerous suggestions for health education messages covering these topics.

While the guidelines are intended primarily for use by managers of national programmes, they will doubtless be welcomed by all those who are concerned with the prevention and control of cholera from the local to the international level.

Price: Sw. fr. 15.-
Price in developing countries: Sw. fr. 10.50
ISBN 92 4 154449 X