Serbian cholera appeal. Poster which appeared in the USA in 1918 appealing for help for Serbia, where cholera was rife. The country had been devasted by the First World War, leaving ideal conditions for a cholera epidemic. Cholera is spread in food and water infected by the bacterium Vibria cholerae. It causes vomiting and diarrhoea with death resulting from dehydration. Because it is associated with unsafe water supplies it often appears after disasters.