Cholera HAS NOT returned to Puerto Rico. A missionary returned from the Dominican Republic, where there is a cholera outbreak, infected with the bacteria.
The bacteria is NOT communicable from person to person. So, there is NO outbreak of cholera in Puerto Rico.
It is a shame that it was local sources who started this fear campaign.
Puerto Rico Ping! Please Freepmail me if you want on or off the list.
This is isolated and is not expected to have any effect because sanitary conditions are very different in the US (which PR is part of, lest people forget!). There are apparently something like 96 cases in the Dominican Republic, where this missionary visited - and 5,000 in Haiti, which shares the island and has horrible sanitary conditions. Haiti is the origin of the outbreak, and the DR has been fairly effective in preventing its spread, even though the countries are neighbors.
In any case, from my understanding, cholera is not a big deal where medical help is effective and available. It is deadly in places where medical help is not available. Since these tend to be the kind of places that have untreated water too, its potentially a deadly combination particularly among the very poor.
But if you can afford a doctor and some antibiotics (and you don’t keep reinfecting yourself with more bad water) its a fever and a bad couple of nights staying close to the toilet.