Further spread of a highly drug-resistant strain of cholera detected

Scientists from the National Reference Center for Vibrio and Cholera Research at the Pasteur Institute in collaboration with the Mayotte Hospital Center have identified the spread of a highly drug-resistant strain of cholera. The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Cholera is an infectious disease caused by bacteria of the Vibrio cholerae species and is accompanied by diarrhea. In its most severe forms, cholera is one of the most rapidly fatal infectious diseases: if untreated, patients can die within hours. Treatment consists primarily of replenishing lost fluids and electrolytes, but antibiotics are used along with rehydration therapy. These are necessary to shorten the duration of the infection and to break the chain of transmission as quickly as possible.

A strain resistant to ten antibiotics, including azithromycin and ciprofloxacin, two of the three recommended treatments for cholera, was first identified in Yemen during the 2018-2019 cholera outbreak.

Scientists have now been able to trace the spread of this strain by studying the genomes of the bacteria. After Yemen, it was detected again in Lebanon in 2022, then in Kenya in 2023, and finally in Tanzania and the Comoros Islands, including Mayotte, a French department off the southeast coast of Africa, in 2024. Between March and July 2024, there was an outbreak of 221 cases of disease caused by this highly drug-resistant strain on the island of Mayotte.

“This study demonstrates the need to strengthen global surveillance of the cholera pathogen, and especially to determine its response to antibiotics in real time. If the new strain currently circulating acquires additional resistance to tetracycline, it will jeopardize all possible oral antibiotic therapy,” said Prof. François-Xavier Weill, head of the Vibrios CNR Center at the Institut Pasteur and lead author of the study.

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Published: 18.12.2024

Updated: 18.12.2024

Medical author, Medical editor:

Stepan Yuk

Medical expert:

PhD. Olexandr Voznyak