Cholera pandemic’s source discovered

Researchers have tracked the spread of antibiotic-resistant cholera strains back to the Bay of Bengal by using next-generation sequencing to trace the source and explain the spread of the latest (seventh) cholera pandemic. They have also highlighted the impact of the acquisition of resistance to antibiotics on shaping outbreaks and show resistance was first acquired around 1982. Whole-genome sequencing reveals that the particular cholera type responsible for the current pandemic can be traced back to an ancestor that first appeared 40 years ago in the Bay of Bengal. From this ancestor, cholera has spread repeatedly to different parts of the world in multiple waves. These findings offer much better understanding of the mechanisms behind the spread of cholera – a diarrhoeal infection which is usually linked to unhygienic conditions and poor sanitation systems often found in disaster areas, such as the Haitian earthquake in October 2010. It is estimated that cholera affects...