Haitian cholera strain could dominate the Americas
Bad news, not just for Haiti.
The DNA of the cholera bacteria ravaging Haiti has been sequenced, and the news is not good. It is carrying a mutation that seems to cause more intense disease. This has already helped the strain to dominate in south Asia, and the Haitian epidemic could spread it still further.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on 8 December that in its first six weeks, the Haitian cholera has been 11.5 times as likely to kill its victims as the cholera that reached Peru in 1991, even though Peruvians, like Haitians, had no prior immunity to the bacteria.
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…the Haitian strain carries more antibiotic-resistance genes than South American cholera. Its mutant toxin also seems to cause more intense diarrhoea – which is how cholera kills. The CDC says people have died a mere 2 hours after first getting symptoms.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19854-haitian-cholera-strain-could-dominate-the-americas.html