Genomic insights into the 2022-2023Vibrio cholerae outbreak in Malawi.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 39060226.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-024-50484-w and PMC identifier 11282309.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Malawi experienced its deadliest Vibrio cholerae (Vc) outbreak following devastating cyclones, with >58,000 cases and >1700 deaths reported between March 2022 and May 2023. Here, we use population genomics to investigate the attributes and origin of the Malawi 2022-2023 Vc outbreak isolates. Our results demonstrate the predominance of ST69 clone, also known as the seventh cholera pandemic El Tor (7PET) lineage, expressing O1 Ogawa (~ 80%) serotype followed by Inaba (~ 16%) and sporadic non-O1/non-7PET serogroups (~ 4%). Phylogenetic reconstruction revealed that the Malawi outbreak strains correspond to a recent importation from Asia into Africa (sublineage AFR15). These isolates harboured known antimicrobial resistance and virulence elements, notably the ICE<sup>GEN</sup>/ICEVchHai1/ICEVchind5 SXT/R391-like integrative conjugative elements and a CTXφ prophage with the ctxB7 genotype compared to historical Malawian Vc isolates. These data suggest that the devastating cyclones coupled with the recent importation of 7PET serogroup O1 strains, may explain the magnitude of the 2022-2023 cholera outbreak in Malawi.
Medical subject headings
- Cholera
- Disease Outbreaks
- Phylogeny
- Vibrio cholerae