Introduction:

It is estimated that 1.4 billion people are at risk of being infected by cholera and half of them are children under 5 years old.

Objective:

To describe clinically and epidemiologically the patients affected by Vibrio cholerae according to their age and the time passed from the onset of symptoms of disease to their attendance to the National Health System.

Methods:

Clinical, epidemiological, descriptive and prospective study from 2013 to 2017 in patients with confirmed V. cholerae by stool culture as a cause of acute diarrheal disease in the Pediatric Hospital of Centro Habana municipality.Qualitative and quantitative variables were analyzed.

Results:

There was a record of 115 children over 5 years and 44 children under 5 years affected by cholera. The 54.7% of the total number of patients studied was in the affected area, 94.3% presented liquid stool, 18.2% of those looked like rice water, 7.5% with fishy smell; 47.2% of the patients presented vomiting, and 6.9% fever and 12.8% abdominal pain. The value of the mean time between the onset of symptoms and the assistance to the physician was of 24 hours.

Conclusions:

Most affected patients and that attended late to the National Health System were the ones over 5 years. In all predominated coming from the affected area, liquid stools and vomiting.

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