Virulence factors in environmental and clinical Vibrio cholerae from endemic areas in Kenya

Since the year 1971, Kenya has had repeated cholera outbreaks. However, the cause of seasonal epidemics of cholera is not fully understood and neither are the factors that drive epidemics, both in Kenya and globally. The objectives of the study were to determine the environmental reservoirs of V. ch...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:African journal of laboratory medicine 2014-07, Vol.3 (2), p.1-1
Main Authors: Kimani, Racheal W, T Muigai, Anne W, Sang, Willie, Kiiru, John N, Kariuki, Samuel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Hyla
Vibrio cholerae
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Summary:Since the year 1971, Kenya has had repeated cholera outbreaks. However, the cause of seasonal epidemics of cholera is not fully understood and neither are the factors that drive epidemics, both in Kenya and globally. The objectives of the study were to determine the environmental reservoirs of V. cholerae during an interepidemic period in Kenya and to characterise their virulence factors. One hundred (50 clinical, 50 environmental) samples were tested for V. cholerae isolates using both simplex and multiplex polymerase chain reaction. Both sediments and algae from fishing and landing bays yielded isolates of V. cholerae. Clinical strains were characterised along with the environmental strains for comparison. All clinical strains harboured ctxA, tcpA (El Tor), ompU, zot, ace, toxR, hylA (El Tor) and tcpI genes. Prevalence for virulence genes in environmental strains was hylA (El Tor) (10%), toxR (24%), zot (22%), ctxA (12%), tcpI (8%), hylA (26%) and tcpA (12%).
ISSN:2225-2002
2225-2010