Wednesday, May 18, 2011

The fantasy theory on the ecology of V. cholerae


The current scientific theories on the ecology of V. cholerae are more close to a fantasy story. The hypothesis put forward by some scientists are not supported by conclusive data. A hypothetical interview with questions and answers on the ecology of V. cholerae is given below.

Q. How did cholera outbreak start in Haiti or Peru?
Ans: V. cholerae is present naturally in the aquatic environment. We ASSUME that the organism that was already present in Peruvian and Haitian aquatic environment was responsible for the outbreak.

Q. In this case, how did the organism reach Peru or Haiti?
Ans: We ASSUME that the ocean currents might have carried the organism from the point of origin to Peru or Haiti.

Q. It took nearly 30 years for the organism to reach Peru. Can the bacteria remain viable for such a long time if they were carried through the ocean currents?
Ans: Yes. In fact, we have shown that V. cholerae can remain viable in sea water microcosms for up to 2 months. We ASSUME that they can remain viable for many years.

Q. But there were no reports of cholera in these areas for many decades. Moreover, toxigenic V. cholerae had not been isolated before the outbreak. So why scientists missed them if they were already present?
Ans: We ASSUME that the bacteria present there were mainly in the dormant form in a viable but non-culturable state. Because they were in the VBNC state, scientists might have missed them.

Q. So why did the outbreak occur all on a sudden?
Ans: We ASSUME that favorable climatic and environmental factors could have triggered the dormant forms to active and culturable forms. For example, El Nino might have activated the dormant forms in Peru and La Nina might have activated them in Haiti.

Regarding the ecology of V. cholerae, scientists have made lots of assumptions. Even though it is acceptable to make bold assumptions and hypotheses in science, those hypotheses should also be supported by conclusive data. Unfortunately, the ecology of V. cholerae is explained based on assumptions only without much supportive data. If the medical community is not receptive to the climatic causation of cholera, it is mainly due to the lack of conclusive proof.

Next- Human associated factors vs environmental and climatic factors


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