Drinking iced tea linked to cholera risk: Study

The finding may have important implications in fighting the disease, the transmission of which is closely linked to inadequate access to clean water and it is often spread through contaminated drinking water. 

“Along with traditional approaches that focus on enhancement of safe water, sanitation, and food safety, combined with periodic provision of oral cholera vaccines, a water quality monitoring system at ice-making plants should be established,” the researchers said. 

After more than a decade of declining cholera incidence, Vietnam faced an increase in cases of the diarrhoeal disease during 2007-2010. Researchers interviewed 60 people who were confirmed to have been infected with cholera during the 2010 outbreak in Ben Tre, as well as 240 controls. 

The researchers found that drinking iced tea, not always boiling drinking water, having a main water source near a toilet, living with other who have diarrhoea, and having little or no education were all associated with an increased risk of cholera, while drinking stored rainwater, eating cooked seafood or steamed vegetables were protective against the disease.