Watching Peru's Oceans for Cholera Cues

Before 1991, no one in Peru could remember a cholera outbreak. Then, in a single day, it hit hard up and down the coast and took off from there, eventually killing thousands. That outbreak was fueled by a change in ocean temperatures. Now some people worry that climate change could bring the scourge back to Peru.

Two scientists in Lima are trying to be ready before the disease strikes. Ana Gil and her husband Claudio Lanata, researchers at the International Institute of Nutrition, are watching out for the earliest hints of cholera. In the epidemic of the 1990s, Lanata says, people panicked.

"When cholera hit us, nobody knew what to do," he says. "They were thinking that people were going to die like flies."

Cholera causes diarrhea so bad that a person can die within a few hours. Lanata estimates that about 14 million people in Peru were infected, and 350,000 ended up in the hospital.

"It's a very nasty disease," Lanata says. "It's like you've opened a faucet in your system. Water just comes out of you in large amounts — liters and liters."

He saw it firsthand when he studied in the United States. American volunteers allowed themselves to be infected to test the efficacy of a vaccine. The vaccine didn't work well, but cholera is easily treated if resources are available — clean water for rehydration and salts to replace the salts that are lost.

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