cholera

Perspectives

19 May 2009 - CHOLERA
Dying for Clean Water
cholera, Hepatitis A, schistosomiasis, Chlamydia trachomatis, Salmonella
An estimated 1.1 billion people don’t have access to safe drinking water, and more than twice as many live with inadequate sanitation. While the consequence is predictable, the numbers are staggering: lack of clean drinking water causes more than 2 million deaths each year, 90% of which are children under the age of five. The microbial culprits are well-known, and the infections they cause are for the most part both preventable and treatable. By Dr. Kristen Kerksiek [ more ]

17 April 2013 - NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY/MBIO
Haiti cholera mutations lead to more severe disease
altered El Tor, cholera, epidemic, Vibrio cholerae
The cholera strain that transferred to Haiti in 2010 has multiple toxin gene mutations that may account for the severity of disease and is evolving to be more like an 1800s version of cholera, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study. The strain, "altered El Tor," which emerged around 2000, is known to be more... [ more ]
5 April 2013 - UMEA UNIVERSITY/NATURE
The weapons by which bacteria fight each other
cholera, Vibrio cholerae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa
A new study which was performed jointly at Umeå University and the University of Washington in Seattle, USA, discovered that bacteria can degrade the cell membrane of bacterial competitors with enzymes that do not harm their own membrane. This exciting finding opens the way for the development of new antibacterial... [ more ]