Photo: © Moredun Animal Health
Ltd / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
Name
Vibrio cholerae
Also known as
The Cholera, Asiatic Cholera
Description
- slightly bent, rod-shaped bacterium
- sprouts a flagellum, a thin, whip-like "tail", once in the human small intestine
(Not) Wanted for
causing cholera, which each year kills about 5,000 people and sickens about 140,000
Modus operandi
- sneaks into its victim via contaminated drinking water.
- If the bacterium survives its trip through the stomach, propels itself to the wall of the small intestine, starts multiplying, and produces toxic proteins that cause serious diarrhoea
If not treated, dehydration caused by the diarrhoea can kill people, sometimes in as little as two to three hours (more commonly one to several days) after the onset of symptoms.
Preferred hideouts
- the human small intestine
- brackish water
Preferred means of travel
- at first, human faeces, then most often water
- sometimes dirty hands and food.
Area of operation
- prefers communities without adequate water-treatment and sewage-disposal systems
- last major outbreak occurred in parts of South America, 1991 - 1994.
Learn about other pathogens on the Most (Not) Wanted list...
Escherichia coli
Salmonella typhi
Campylobacter jejuni
Giardia lamblia
