Published: 2016-03-04 years Updated: 2020-11-07
Author: University of Bath | Contact: bath.ac.uk
Peer-reviewed publications: N / A
Move in: Main announcement | Publications
Summary: El Niños can transport and spread water-borne diseases like cholera thousands of miles, across oceans, with significant public health impacts. El Nino describes the unusual warming of surface waters along the tropical west coast of South America. These events tend to occur every 3-7 years… Over the past 30 years, coinciding with the three most recent significant El Niño events in 1990/91, 1997/98 and 2010, variables New strains of waterborne pathogens have emerged in Latin America.
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Main announcement
Research published in prestigious journal Natural microorganisms from an international team of researchers in the United Kingdom and the United States, explores how the emergence of new and devastating Vibrio diseases in Latin America has concurred both time and space with events. important El Nino event.
El Nino is defined as a prolonged warming of the Pacific sea surface temperature when compared to the mean. The US NOAA definition is a 3-month mean warming of at least 0.5°C (0.9°F) in a particular area of the east-central tropical Pacific; Other organizations define the term slightly differently. Typically, this anomaly occurs at irregular intervals of 2 to 7 years, and lasts from 9 months to 2 years. The average period is 5 years. When this warming occurs for 7 to 9 months, it is classified as an El Nino “condition” – when its duration is longer, it is classified as an El Nino “wave”. These events tend to happen every 3 – 7 years; which many believe has become more frequent and extreme in recent years, as a result of climate change.
Graph showing El Nino Godzilla 2016 – comparing data from 1997 to 2015 shows unusual El Nino effects in recent times. Illustration Credit: Research authors and institutions.
Through the new study, the result of a long-term collaboration with the National Institutes of Health (INS) in Peru, the authors observe that domestic bacterial diseases reported in Latin America appear to be on the rise. move parallel to time and warm place. El Nino water is in contact with land.
Most notably, based on new data obtained from whole-genome sequencing of bacterial strains, they show a link between Asian pathogens and organisms emerging in Asia. Latin America.
Over the past 30 years, coinciding with the three most recent major El Niño events in 1990/91, 1997/98 and 2010, new variants of waterborne pathogens have emerged in Latin America.
These cases include a devastating cholera outbreak in Peru in 1990, which resulted in more than 13,000 deaths, as well as two cases in 1997 and 2010 when new variants of the bacterium Vibrio parahaemolyticus led to to widespread human disease caused by contaminated shellfish.
Lead author from the University of Bath’s Milner Center for Evolution and the Department of Biology & Biochemistry, Dr Jaime Martinez-Urtaza explains:
“Through our findings, we suggest that so-called Vibrio – microscopic bacteria commonly found in seawater – can attach to larger organisms such as zooplankton to travel. Many previous studies have shown how such bacteria bind to and use these larger organisms as an energy source, and through this mechanism, we suggest, they essentially have able to carry each other to move such colossal diseases, driven by ocean currents.”
“The influence of El Niño events and their impact on local weather, fisheries, and the risk of more extreme meteorological events is well documented. It’s now well understood the role played. The role of ocean currents in transporting these diseases has huge implications for public health campaigns in those countries.”
Co-author Dr Craig Baker-Austin from the UK Cefas Weymouth laboratory adds:
“An El Niño event could represent an efficient long-distance ‘biological corridor’ that would allow the movement of marine organisms from remote areas. This process could provide a new source of defining pathogens. periodically and uniquely into the United States with serious implications for the spread and control of disease.”
The study involved scientists from the University of Bath (UK), the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the US Food and Drug Administration and the UK’s CEFAS Weymouth Laboratory. Great Britain.
Reference Source(s):
El Nino can spread disease to new places | University of Bath (bath.ac.uk). Disability World makes no warranties or representations regarding that matter. Content may have been edited for style, clarity, or length.
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