A disease usually spread by contaminated water that causes severe intestinal illness.

• A. Cholera
• B. Giardiasis
• C. Dysentery
• D. Typhoid

Answer: (C)

Dysentery describes an intestinal infection that inflames the lining of the gut, typically due to bacteria or protozoa acquired from contaminated water or food. The hallmark is severe diarrhea often with blood and mucus, accompanied by cramps and dehydration. This combination—waterborne transmission and a notably severe, inflammatory form of diarrhea with blood—fits the description in the question precisely.

Cholera, while also spread by contaminated water, usually presents with profuse watery, rice-water stools and rapid dehydration rather than blood in the stool. Typhoid fever involves systemic illness with sustained fever and abdominal symptoms, but not the classic severe inflammatory diarrhea with blood. Giardiasis causes persistent diarrhea and malabsorption, but it does not typically produce the severe, bloody diarrhea that characterizes dysentery.