Recent clonal origin of cholera in Haiti

DOI: 10.3201/eid1704.101973
Suggested citation for this article: Ali A, Chen Y, Johnson JA, Redden E, Mayette Y, Rashid MH, et al. Recent clonal origin of cholera in Haiti. Emerg Infect Dis. 2011 Apr; [Epub ahead of print]


Recent Clonal Origin of Cholera in Haiti
Afsar Ali, Yuansha Chen, Judith A. Johnson, Edsel Redden, Yfto Mayette, Mohammed H. Rashid, O. Colin Stine, and J. Glenn Morris, Jr


Author affiliations: University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida USA (A. Ali, Y. Chen, J.A. Johnson, E. Redden, M.H. Rashid, J.G. Morris, Jr); Saint Mark’s Hospital, Arbonite, Haiti (Y. Mayette); and University of Maryland College of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA (O.C. Stine)


Altered El Tor Vibrio cholerae O1, with classical cholera toxin B gene, was isolated from 16 patients with severe diarrhea at St. Mark’s Hospital, Arbonite, Haiti, <3 weeks after onset of the current cholera epidemic. Variable-number tandem-repeat typing of 187 isolates showed minimal diversity, consistent with a point source for the epidemic. On October 21, 2010, isolation of toxigenic Vibrio cholerae O1 from patients with severe diarrhea was confirmed by the National Laboratory of Public Health of the Ministry of Public Health and Population in Haiti (1). These cases indicated onset of epidemic cholera in Haiti and were followed by rapid spread of the disease throughout the country. Illness occurred in the setting of major disruptions of water and sewage facilities resulting from the January 12, 2010, earthquake and associated deficiencies in local public health infrastructure (1). Before the current epidemic, cases of cholera had not been reported in Haiti since 1960 (2), and disease had not spread into Haiti during expansion of the El Tor pandemic into Latin America that began in Peru in 1991. However, toxigenic V. cholerae O1 are present along the US Gulf Coast (3,4) and in other coastal areas in the Western Hemisphere. In conjunction with ongoing public health activities in Haiti by the University of Florida, we analyzed fecal samples from patients early in the epidemic. Data obtained on V. cholerae strain diversity and gene content improved our understanding of the epidemiology of this outbreak. full-text: http://www.cdc.gov/eid/content/17/4/pdfs/10-1973.pdf?source=govdelivery