For the first time, researchers have managed to sequence the genome of the bacterium Vibrio clolerae, the cholera bacterium which caused millions of deaths in the 19th century and which continues to plague many poor countries on the planet (as since 2010 in Haiti). Each year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), cholera is responsible for 100,000 to 120,000 deaths,
“Understanding the evolution of an infectious disease has enormous potential for understanding its epidemiology, how it evolves over time and the factors favoring its transmission between humans”, explains Dr Hendrik Poinar, assistant professor of genetics and director of the Center for the Study of Ancient DNA at McMaster University in Canada, one of the co-authors.
The researchers managed to solve this mystery because they recently had access to a collection of organs preserved in formalin, belonging to the Museum of Medical History in Philadelphia, in the United States. They then analyzed a portion of the intestine of a man who died of cholera in the 19th century and found usable traces of a bacterium of the time. This is how they managed to sequence the genome of this bacterium. The results of their work were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
