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June 7, 2002
U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS
"Human Body May Make Cholera More Infectious"
Boston Globe (www.boston.com/globe) (06/06/02) P. B8
Researchers from the Tufts School of Medicine report in the journal Nature that cholera bacteria appear to become more infectious as they pass through the human intestinal tract, a conclusion that complicates efforts to find a vaccine. It is also the explanation, says Tufts' Andrew Camilli, of why the disease spreads so rapidly in the Third World--feces contaminated water or food typically infects as many as 300,000 people into those countries, causing severe diarrhea, which can cause excessive dehydration and even death. Camilli observed that before the Vibrio cholerae bacteria leaves the human system, something, possibly stomach acid, promotes the germs to switch on a large number of genes, including the ones that mobilize the bacteria and synthesize the nutrients, but switch off those that normally prevent the bacteria from being mobile.
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