An 80-year-old man has died from a case of what is thought to be cholera, The Sun has reported.
If the man’s cause of death is confirmed to be the disease, this would mark the first time a case has been recorded in Britain in 125 years.
The dad-of-two reportedly became ill at home last week with sickness and diarrhoea.
He was taken to the George Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, for treatment, when his condition deteriorated, and he was immediately quarantined.
The paper reported that his family was told he had become infected with cholera. On Tuesday morning, he sadly died.
Cholera is a waterborne bacterial disease which was responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands during the 1800’s. The last case of cholera in the UK was recorded in 1901.
The disease is chiefly transmitted by eating and drinking contaminated food and water and is responsible for up to 143,000 deaths a year in Africa and Asia.
A source told The Sun that the man’s family initially thought he had norovirus, before his condition worsened and he was taken to the hospital.
Doctors later ran tests and told him he had contracted cholera, which then sadly spread to his kidneys and liver.
Despite the best efforts of medical staff, doctors later told the man’s family there was nothing they could do.
A source told The Sun that his family “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,” they said.
“His eldest was allowed to be in the room with him in full PPE as his life ebbed away. It was incredibly traumatic”.
The paper reported that the UK Health Security Agency said it could possibly be one of two cholerae bacteria.
One of these strands may lead to cholera, whilst the other does not, but can create a false positive on tests.
There are around 1.3-4 million cases of cholera reported each year globally, and up to 80 percent of cases can be effectively treated with oral rehydration treatment.
