Abstract and Introduction
Introduction
Cholera infects millions of people each year, killing up to 142,000 of its victims. Localized outbreaks of cholera have been recorded since ancient times; the first documented pandemic began in 1817 in the Ganges River Delta and spread as far as the Middle East and East Africa, resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths. A current ongoing pandemic reportedly began in Indonesia in 1961 and has spread to more than 50 countries.
Cholera is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, one of the first pathogenic microbes identified in the nineteenth century. Infection with V. cholerae causes acute watery diarrhea that, left untreated, can kill a patient in a single day. But V. cholerae is not the only vibrio, nor is cholera the only vibrionic disease that affects people. V. parahaemolyticus and V. vulnificus can also cause serious, sometimes fatal, gastrointestinal illnesses and wound infections.
Now a spate of new research is exploring how elements of climate change—from rising air and sea temperatures to intensifying monsoons—affect the ecology of pathogenic vibrios. Recent studies of environmental conditions that lead to cholera outbreaks in the Bay of Bengal and the Indus River Basin offer important insights on the role of climate change in the ongoing clash between human and vibrio.
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