The Impact of the Environment on Global Patterns of Cholera

Introduction: Research continues to reveal the many contributions climate has on controlling ecosystems at scales ranging from growth, reproduction, and even the survival of individual organisms (Wang); so who’s to say the same cannot be said about infectious bacteria living in the same environments? This question/idea is not recent, around 415 BC Hippocrates was one of the first to contemplate that diseases were caused naturally (not as a punishment from the gods) and that that there was a possible connection between them and the climate (Lipp). In the 20th century concerns began to circulate around the impact of humans and our alterations to terrestrial and aquatic habitats; this coupled with an obvious changing global climate, resulted in a combination of disciplinary efforts to understand how such changes might affect human health. These alterations outcomes are now thought to change the geographic range of many pathogens, potentially increasing exposure and risk of infection for humans (Lipp). For example, the slow warming of Earth by green house gasses and related environmental changes are commonly linked to algae growth and associated plankton blooms, these events could considerably influence the dispersal of one of the most common water-borne diseases, cholera (Sattenspiel).

Discussion: Cholera is a water bourn disease (transmitted through the ingestion of contaminated water) caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. It infects the intestine “causing acute intestinal illness with watery, profuse diarrhea and rapid dehydration, followed over half the time by death, sometimes within a few hours of the first symptoms,” (Sattenspiel). “In 2004, 70% of all cholera cases identified were in the regions of Southeastern Africa, Northern Africa and Central Africa (figure 3). Mozambique had the highest count of cholera cases, at twenty thousand,” (Worldmapper). The most important treatment for cholera is quick rehydration of fluids and electrolytes. There is

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