Vibrio Cholera Outbreak

In general, members of the genus Vibrio are Gram-negative, motile and most of the members have a single polar flagellum, when grown in liquid medium (Kaysner & DePaola, 2004). Vibrio cholerae lives naturally in riverine and is the causative agent of cholera outbreaks and epidemics. Vibrio cholerae is comma-shaped. Initial isolates are slightly curved, whereas they can appear as straight rods upon laboratory culturing. Vibrio cholerae is a facultative anaerobe and can undergo respiratory and fermentative metabolism. Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a curved and rod-shaped and usually found in brackish, saltwater. Once ingested, this bacteria can cause gastrointestinal problems. Vibrio parahaemolyticus is oxidase positive, facultatively aerobic and does not form spores and same like other members of the Vibrio genus, this bacteria is also motile and has a polar flagellum (Ryan and Ray, 2004).

Vibrio parahaemolyticus has been recognized as the cause of human gastroenteritis associated with seafood consumption (Vimala & others, 2010). There have been several cases of Vibrio outbreak over the years. One of the reported cases was in August 2015, where there were 31
TCBS agar is a selective as well as differential culture medium used for isolation of Vibrio spp. The growth of intestinal flora other than Vibrio spp. is prevented by the high pH (8.5-9.5) of TCBS. TCBS agar consist off yeast extract, bacteriological peptone, sodium thiosulphate, sodium citrate, ox bile, sucrose, sodium chloride, ferric citrate, Bromothymol blue/ thymol blue and agar. Sodium thiosulphate, sodium citrate and ox bile are the components that inhibit the growth of Gram-positive microorganisms. The disadvantage of TCBS agar is that it may not support good growth for all Vibrio spp. Some Vibrio spp. can’t grow well on TCBS agar plates such as Vibrio hollisae and Vibrio metschnikovii (Acharya,