Latest Vibrio cholerae Stories

In a new study, Dartmouth researchers describe the structure of a protein called ToxT that controls the virulent nature of Vibrio cholerae, the bacteria that causes cholera. Buried within ToxT, the researchers were surprised to find a fatty acid that appears to inhibit ToxT, which prevents the bacteria from causing cholera. Cholera, which causes acute diarrhea, can be life threatening, and, according to the World Health Organization, cholera remains a serious threat to global health.Doctors...

River discharge and regional climate are keysCholera, an acute diarrheal disease caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, has reemerged as a global killer. Outbreaks typically occur once a year in Africa and Latin America. But in Bangladesh the epidemics occur twice a year "“ in the spring and again in the fall.Scientists have tried, without much success, to determine the cause of these unique dual outbreaks "“ and advance early detection and prevention efforts "“ by analyzing such...

United Nations agencies said on Friday that a dangerous cholera epidemic is spreading quickly in Guinea-Bissau, where campaigning for an upcoming election could put even more people at risk.So far this year, some 12,225 people in the West African state have caught cholera and 201 have died, raising fears among aid workers that the water-borne disease could resurge on the devastating scale seen in 2005.More than 1,000 people were getting infected each month in Guinea-Bissau, with the capital...

Scientists in the USA have established a way to predict outbreaks of cholera, making it easier to control. This finding could provide a model to predict and potentially control outbreaks of other important infectious diseases.Cholera is a serious, ancient water-borne infectious disease, which is an unpredictable and severe problem for developing countries.The bacterium that causes cholera, Vibrio cholerae, has a known association with a crustacean (called a copepod) which lives on...

By Schofield, Cynthia B Smallpox, diphtheria, typhoid fever, polio, cholera, and tuberculosis (TB) are among the diseases that struck fear into citizens of 18th- and 19th-century America. Discovery of antibiotics and antiseptic techniques in 20th-century America made the threat of death from an infectious disease seem like a horror of the past. In 1882, Robert Koch isolated and identified the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) bacillus, followed by Vibrio cholerae a year later. Louis Pasteur,...