Cholera remains a serious health problem, especially in developing countries where basic hygiene standards are not met. The symptoms of cholera are caused by cholera toxin, an enterotoxin, which is produced by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. We have recently shown that human probiotic bacteria are capable of removing cyanobacterial toxins from aqueous solutions. In the present study we investiga...

The origin of cholera has been elusive, even though scientific evidence clearly shows it is a waterborne disease. However, standard bacteriological procedures for isolation of the cholera vibrio from environmental samples, including water, between epidemics generally were unsuccessful. Vibrio cholerae, a marine vibrio, requiring salt for growth, enters into a dormant, viable but nonculturable s...

Cholera is generally regarded as the prototypical waterborne and environmental disease. In Africa, available studies are scarce, and the relevance of this disease paradigm is questionable. Cholera outbreaks have been repeatedly reported far from the coasts: from 2009 through 2011, three-quarters of all cholera cases in Africa occurred in inland regions. Such outbreaks are either influenced by r...

Since October 2010, over 700,000 cholera cases have been reported in Haiti. We used data from laboratory-based surveillance for diarrhea in Haiti to evaluate the sensitivity, specificity, and positive (PPV) and negative predictive values (NPV) of the cholera case definitions recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). From April 2012 to May 2013, we tested 1,878 samples from hospitalize...

Five strains of non-agglutinable or NAG vibrios have been isolated from stool cultures of patients with cholera -like disease. They resembled the true cholera vibrios culturally, but were inagglutinable by the cholera O -group antisera or the rough anti -cholera serum. The vibrios were sensitive to most of the antibiotics tested. Immunological studies showed that the five strains belonged to th...

CHOLERA OUTBREAKS There are lessons to be learnt from cholera outbreaks in Ghana. In his inaugural lecture, Professor G. A. Ashitey provides an account on the first cholera epidemic of 1970 in Ghana. Cholera outbreak in West Africa was first reported in Guinea. Although denied by the Government of Guinea the World Health Organisation had to break protocol and establish for the first time that “...

Six peptides corresponding to various segments of the B subunit of cholera toxin have been synthesized and covalently linked to tetanus toxoid. Of the antibodies raised in rabbits against these conjugates, four crossreacted to different extents with the intact B subunit and whole native cholera toxin. Antisera to the peptide of sequence 75-85 were not crossreactive, whereas elongation by six am...

Oral cholera vaccines (OCVs) have been recommended in cholera-endemic settings and preemptively during outbreaks and complex emergencies. However, experience and guidelines for reactive use after an outbreak has started are limited. In 2010, after over a century without epidemic cholera, an outbreak was reported in Haiti after an earthquake. As intensive nonvaccine cholera control measures were...

The recent outbreaks of cholera in several states of Malaysia serve as a timely reminder that cholera is still amajor public health problem in Malaysia. According to the Minister of Health, in 1991 alone there were 504 cases of cholera with 5 deathsl . Malaysia is not alone in facing this old adversary. Cholera is endemic in many countries inAsia andAfrica. In a recent survey of diarrhoea in Ba...