Vibrio cholerae and Cholera: A Recent African Perspective

With an estimated burden of 1.4–4.3 million cases per year, cholera remains a major health concern worldwide (W.H.O. 2014). Much of the research addressing cholera has focused on regions of Asia and the Indian sub-continent, a region where cholera has been ever-present over the past century or more. However, since the introduction of the seventh pandemic strains into Africa in 1970, this continent has suffered severely, and African countries accounted for the majority of global cases reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) in many recent years (Bockemuhl and Schroter 1975; W.H.O. 2014). For this reason, there has been an increased research interest from both international and local researchers to conduct cholera-related research on African soil.