Open Syndrome Cholera
Table of Contents
Authors: Ministry of Health
Location: Ghana
Purpose #
Case definition for suspected case of cholera
The definition #
In a patient age 5 years or more, severe dehydration or death from acute watery diarrhoea (rice water stool). If there is a cholera epidemic, a suspected case is a person age 5 years or more with acute watery diarrhoea, with or without vomiting.
Machine-readable definition #
The definition is available in JSON format following the Open Syndrome v1.0 specification:
{
"category": "suspected",
"definition_type": "case_definition",
"description": "Case definition for suspected case of cholera",
"human_readable_definition": "In a patient age 5 years or more, severe dehydration or death from acute watery diarrhoea\n(rice water stool).\nIf there is a cholera epidemic, a suspected case is a person age 5 years or more with acute\nwatery diarrhoea, with or without vomiting.",
"inclusion_criteria": [
{
"logical_operator": "AND",
"type": "criterion",
"values": [
{
"attribute": "age",
"name": "5 years old or more",
"operator": "\u003e=",
"type": "demographic_criteria",
"unit": "years",
"value": 5
},
{
"name": "Acute watery diarrhea",
"type": "symptom"
}
]
}
],
"keywords": [
"Cholera",
"Africa"
],
"language": "English",
"location": "Ghana",
"notes": [
"If there is a cholera epidemic, a suspected case is a person age 5 years or more with acute watery diarrhoea, with or without vomiting."
],
"open_syndrome_version": "1.0.0",
"organization": "Ministry of Health",
"published_at": "2025-01-29T12:00:00Z",
"published_by": [
"Open Syndrome Initiative"
],
"published_in": "https://opensyndrome.org",
"references": [
{
"url": "https://www.moh.gov.gh/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Integrated-Disease-Surveillance-and-Response-Ghana-Guidelines.pdf"
}
],
"scope": "broad",
"status": "draft",
"target_public_health_threats": [
"Cholera"
],
"title": "Open Syndrome Cholera",
"version": "1.0.0"
}
Using the Definition #
Healthcare organizations can implement this definition through:
- Direct integration with surveillance systems
- API endpoints for real-time validation
- Manual case verification processes
Next Steps #
We encourage:
- Clinical feedback on the definition criteria
- Technical feedback on the implementation format
- Suggestions for additional symptoms or signs
- Reports of implementation experiences
Get Involved #
We welcome contributions and feedback from the community.