Although Vibrio cholerae is a human pathogen, the bacteria are part of the normal aquatic flora in estuarine and brackish waters and thus are able to persist in the environment outside human host.
Cholera was originally endemic in eastern India. Up to 1960, it had extended from India in six pandemics over the world.
Vibrio cholerae is a motile rod with a single polar, sheathed flagellum. It can grow in peptone water with 6% NaCl.
Although cholera is considered a waterborne disease, there is an evidence indicates the importance of food, particularly seafood, in the transmission of cholera.
The physicochemical characteristics of foods that support survival and growth of Vibrio cholerae O1 are high moisture content, neutral or alkaline pH, low temperature, high organic content and an absence of other competing bacteria.
Pathogenic vibrios are capable of producing three clinical manifestations of infection: gastroenteritis, soft tissue infections and systemic infections in including bacteremia.
Food-borne pathogenic bacteria: Vibrio cholerae
