| Cholera is a life-threatening secretory diarrhea induced by an
enterotoxin secreted by V cholerae. Cholera and the cholera enterotoxin are increasingly
recognized as the prototypes for a wide variety of non-invasive diarrheal diseases,
collectively known as the enterotoxic enteropathies; of these, diarrhea due to
enterotoxigenic strains of Escherichia coli (see Ch. 26) is the most important. Cholera
remains a major epidemic disease. There have been seven great pandemics. The latest, which
started in 1961, invaded the Western Hemisphere (for the first time this century) with a
massive outbreak in Peru in 1991. There have since been more than a million cases in
Central and South America as well as a few imported cases in the U.S. and Canada. V
cholerae serogroup O139, which arose in October of 1992 in India and Bangladesh, may
become the cause of the 8th great pandemic of cholera. Vibrio
vulnificus is a bacterium in the same family as those that cause cholera. It normally
lives in warm seawater and is part of a group of vibrios that are called
"halophilic" because they require salt.
V. vulnificus can cause disease in those who eat eat
contaminated seafood or have an open wound that is exposed to seawater. Among healthy
people, ingestion of V. vulnificus can cause vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal
pain. In immunocompromised persons, particularly those with chronic liver disease, V.
vulnificus can infect the bloodstream, causing a severe and life-threatening illness
characterized by fever and chills, decreased blood pressure (septic shock), and blistering
skin lesions. V. vulnificus bloodstream infections are fatal about 50% of the
time.
V. vulnificus can also cause an infection of the skin when
open wounds are exposed to warm seawater; these infections may lead to skin breakdown and
ulceration. Persons who are immunocompromised are at higher risk for invasion of the
organism into the bloodstream and potentially fatal complications.
Phage Therapy for Treating Vibrio Infections
Brittanica
Bacteriophage
Additional Information About Phage Therapy for this Condition
ICMR, Indian Council of Medical Research
Cholera Bacteriophages
Revisited
Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology
Use of
Lytic Bacteriophage for Control of Experimental Escherichia coli Septicemia and
Meningitis in Chickens and Calves
Medical Information
CDC
Cholera
CDC
Vibrio vulnificus
Disaster Relief
What
is Cholera
Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
Vibrio cholerae
Serogroup O1 |
