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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, August 2005, p. 4645-4654, Vol. 71, No. 8
0099-2240/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.71.8.4645-4654.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Critical Factors Influencing the Occurrence of Vibrio cholerae in the Environment of Bangladesh

Anwar Huq,1,6* R. Bradley Sack,2 Azhar Nizam,3 Ira M. Longini,3 G. Balakrish Nair,4 Afsar Ali,5 J. Glenn Morris Jr.,5 M. N. Huda Khan,4 A. Kasem Siddique,4 Mohammed Yunus,4 M. John Albert,4,{dagger} David A. Sack,4 and Rita R. Colwell1,2,6

Center of Marine Biotechnology, University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, Baltimore, Maryland,1 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland,2 Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia,3 International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh,4 University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland,5 University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Sciences, College Park, Maryland6

Received 27 August 2004/ Accepted 16 February 2005

The occurrence of outbreaks of cholera in Africa in 1970 and in Latin America in 1991, mainly in coastal communities, and the appearance of the new serotype Vibrio cholerae O139 in India and subsequently in Bangladesh have stimulated efforts to understand environmental factors influencing the growth and geographic distribution of epidemic Vibrio cholerae serotypes. Because of the severity of recent epidemics, cholera is now being considered by some infectious disease investigators as a "reemerging" disease, prompting new work on the ecology of vibrios. Epidemiological and ecological surveillance for cholera has been under way in four rural, geographically separated locations in Bangladesh for the past 4 years, during which both clinical and environmental samples were collected at biweekly intervals. The clinical epidemiology portion of the research has been published (Sack et al., J. Infect. Dis. 187:96-101, 2003). The results of environmental sampling and analysis of the environmental and clinical data have revealed significant correlations of water temperature, water depth, rainfall, conductivity, and copepod counts with the occurrence of cholera toxin-producing bacteria (presumably V. cholerae). The lag periods between increases or decreases in units of factors, such as temperature and salinity, and occurrence of cholera correlate with biological parameters, e.g., plankton population blooms. The new information on the ecology of V. cholerae is proving useful in developing environmental models for the prediction of cholera epidemics.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Center of Marine Biotechnology, University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, 701 East Pratt Street, Baltimore, MD 21202. Phone: 410-234-8833. Fax: 410-234-8896. E-mail: huq{at}umbi.umd.edu.

{dagger} Present address: Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Kuwait University, Kuwait.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, August 2005, p. 4645-4654, Vol. 71, No. 8
0099-2240/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.71.8.4645-4654.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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