A Research conducted by the Global Institute of Barcelona He pointed out that climatic conditions contributed to the spread of cholera epidemics in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A combination of the evolution of pathogens and Climatic anomalies helped spread cholera epidemics.; It is a fact that assumes that changes in climate and pathogens play a fundamental role in the emergence and spread of infectious diseases.
The 19th century pandemic spread across the planet, and six more have since swept the world, killing millions of people. The current, seventh, cholera pandemic emerged in South Asia in 1961, then spread to Africa in 1971 and to the Americas in 1991. Researchers point out that Since 2022, cholera cases have increased in many countries, especially those with poor socio-economic conditions..
Genetic changes in bacteria can be the causes and accelerators of pandemics, the researchers explain. During this seventh pandemic, they point out, the dominant strain was replaced by another strain to which people had less immunity. Xavier Rudo, ICREA researcher at ISGlobal, explains: It is suspected that climate conditions will play a major role in the spread of this emerging new strain.
The relationship between climate and cholera
The researchers examined the links between climate patterns and cholera deaths during the sixth pandemic. The study authors compared the results with the seventh pandemic and with the emergence of this new strain in Bangladesh. One of the most surprising findings, the results suggest, was the timing of the cholera outbreak. The signal for the emergence of a new strain accompanied the 1904–1907 El Niño, an anomaly also observed in the late 20th century, coinciding with cholera expansions in Africa and South America. “Our findings suggest that Genetic changes in the prevailing cholera strain, coupled with unusual weather conditions, led to the emergence and spread of The sixth pandemicAlthough “climate easing does not always lead to the replacement of a new strain, only if the new strains are already spreading in the environment and can take over. We have seen how the greatest climate anomalies of the recent past were not always accompanied by new strains replacing the previous ones.
“l,” explains Mercedes Pascual, lead author of the study and a researcher at New York University.Variations in climatic conditions or evolutionary change in pathogens can be important drivers of major epidemics.But these two factors are usually considered separately in studies that attempt to explain the occurrence of unusually large outbreaks.
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