The incubation period is the period from infection until symptoms occur. In cholera this is usually 24-72 hours. The severity of symptoms depends on the dose, i.e. the number of bacteria ingested. Some otherwise healthy individuals may not develop any symptoms at all. Of those who do, only a small proportion develop severe disease. The principal symptom of cholera is diarrhea, which is watery and brown at first, but quickly changes to large volumes of pale fluid stools ('rice-water stools'). In the most severe cases dramatic fluid loss from the continuous diarrhea can lead to hypovolemic shock and collapse within 1 to 4 hours. Depending upon the treatment provided, unconsciousness and death can occur anytime from 12 to 18 hours afterwards, although some individual cases may persist for several days. Fever is not a prominent feature of cholera. Writer Susan Sontag wrote that cholera was more feared than some other deadly diseases because it dehumanized the victim. Diarrhea and dehydration were so severe that the victim could literally shrink into a wizened caricature of his or her former self before death.[5] Other symptoms include nosebleed, rapid pulse, dry skin, tiredness, abdominal cramps, nausea, leg cramps, and vomitin
