title: El Tor cholera with severe disease: a new threat to Asia and beyond.
abstract: During epidemics of cholera in two rural sites (Bakerganj and Mathbaria), a much higher proportion of patients came for treatment with severe dehydration than was seen in previous years. V. cholerae O1 isolated from these patients was found to be El Tor in its phenotype, but its cholera toxin (CT) was determined to be that of classical biotype. Whether the observed higher proportion of severe dehydration produced by the El Tor biotype was due to a shift from El Tor to classical CT or due to other factors is not clear. However, if cholera due to strains with increased severity spread to other areas where treatment facilities are limited, there are likely to be many more cholera deaths.
authors.affiliation: Public Health Sciences Division (PHSD), International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh. siddique@icddrb.org
authors.forename: A K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Siddique
authors.forename: G B
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Nair
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Alam
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Sack
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Huq
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nizam
authors.forename: I M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Longini
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Qadri
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Faruque
authors.forename: R R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Colwell
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ahmed
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Iqbal
authors.forename: N A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Bhuiyan
authors.forename: R B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Sack
mesh_terms: D001208:Asia / Q000453:epidemiology; D002771:Cholera / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002772:Cholera Toxin / Q000378:metabolism; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D006801:Humans; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors; D014734:Vibrio cholerae / Q000145:classification / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D002772:Cholera Toxin