Strains of Cholera from Haiti have Limited Capacity for Horizontal Gene Transfer
The bacterium Vibrio cholerae annually causes millions of cases of the often fatal disease cholera, typically in regions where access to clean drinking water is limited. V. cholerae can be introduced into water by infected individuals who can sometimes be asymptomatic, however this microbe is also a natural inhabitant of aquatic waters. Since the summer following the tragic January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, an on-going cholera epidemic has resulted in more than 600,000 individual cases and 7,500 deaths.