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Clinical Microbiology Reviews, October 2002, p. 757-770, Vol. 15, No. 4
0893-8512/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/CMR.15.4.757-770.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Effects of Global Climate on Infectious Disease: the Cholera Model

Erin K. Lipp,1,2 Anwar Huq,1,3 and Rita R. Colwell1,3*

Center of Marine Biotechnology, University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, Baltimore, Maryland 21202,1 Department of Environmental Health Science, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602,2 Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 207423

Recently, the role of the environment and climate in disease dynamics has become a subject of increasing interest to microbiologists, clinicians, epidemiologists, and ecologists. Much of the interest has been stimulated by the growing problems of antibiotic resistance among pathogens, emergence and/or reemergence of infectious diseases worldwide, the potential of bioterrorism, and the debate concerning climate change. Cholera, caused by Vibrio cholerae, lends itself to analyses of the role of climate in infectious disease, coupled to population dynamics of pathogenic microorganisms, for several reasons. First, the disease has a historical context linking it to specific seasons and biogeographical zones. In addition, the population dynamics of V. cholerae in the environment are strongly controlled by environmental factors, such as water temperature, salinity, and the presence of copepods, which are, in turn, controlled by larger-scale climate variability. In this review, the association between plankton and V. cholerae that has been documented over the last 20 years is discussed in support of the hypothesis that cholera shares properties of a vector-borne disease. In addition, a model for environmental transmission of cholera to humans in the context of climate variability is presented. The cholera model provides a template for future research on climate-sensitive diseases, allowing definition of critical parameters and offering a means of developing more sophisticated methods for prediction of disease outbreaks.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Center of Marine Biotechnology, University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, 701 E. Pratt St., Baltimore, MD 21202. Phone: (410) 234-8886. Fax: (410) 234-8899. E-mail: colwell{at}umbi.umd.edu.

Clinical Microbiology Reviews, October 2002, p. 757-770, Vol. 15, No. 4
0893-8512/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/CMR.15.4.757-770.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. Clin. Vaccine Immunol.
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Copyright © 2002 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.