Abstract
To our knowledge, there was no record of Vibrio cholerae in Haiti until the 2010 post earthquake outbreak. This study describes the analysis of 301 stool samples from 117 infants in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, who participated in a pediatric nutrition study between July 2008 and October 2009. Nine samples were identified positive with both SYBR Green and Taqman-MGB probe based molecular assays targeting V. cholerae hlyA and toxR, respectively (Ct = 33-40), but none were O1 or O139. Our results from multiple molecular assays demonstrate the presence of non-O1/O139 V. cholerae DNA in stools collected from nine asymptomatic Haitian infants two years prior to the 2010 earthquake.
Highlights
IntroductionDespite the presence of epidemic cholera in the Caribbean throughout the 1800 and 1900s, Haiti was unaffected by cholera from 1960 until several months after the devastating January 12th 2010 earthquake
To our knowledge, there was no record of Vibrio cholerae in Haiti until the 2010 post earthquake outbreak
Despite the presence of epidemic cholera in the Caribbean throughout the 1800 and 1900s, Haiti was unaffected by cholera from 1960 until several months after the devastating January 12th 2010 earthquake
Summary
Despite the presence of epidemic cholera in the Caribbean throughout the 1800 and 1900s, Haiti was unaffected by cholera from 1960 until several months after the devastating January 12th 2010 earthquake. The cholera epidemic has killed thousands of people, and extensive efforts have focused on the etiology of this outbreak [1,2]. A recent article showed that two distinct populations of V. cholerae were detected in Haiti early in the epidemic and proposed that nonO1/O139 strains likely existed prior to the earthquake based on comparative genomic analysis [3]. All the samples tested were collected after the earthquake. Direct evidence of presence of V. cholerae in clinical or environmental samples prior to the earthquake would be valuable
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