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Although cholera is a major public health concern in Mozambique, its transmission patterns remain unknown. We surveyed the genetic relatedness of 75 Vibrio cholerae isolates from patients at Manhiça District Hospital between 2002-2012 and 3 isolates from river using multilocus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis (MLVA) and whole genome sequencing (WGS). MLVA revealed 22 genotypes in two clonal complexes and four unrelated genotypes. WGS revealed i) the presence of recombination, ii) 67 isolates descended monophyletically from a single source connected to Wave 3 of the Seventh Pandemic, and iii) four clinical isolates lacking the cholera toxin gene. This Wave 3 strain persisted for at least eight years in either an environmental reservoir or circulating within the human population. Our data raises important questions related to where these isolates persist and how identical isolates can be collected years apart despite our understanding of high change rate of MLVA loci and the V. cholerae molecular clock.

Original publication

DOI

10.1371/journal.pntd.0005671

Type

Journal

PLoS neglected tropical diseases

Publication Date

16/06/2017

Volume

11

Addresses

Centro de Investigação em Saúde de Manhiça (CISM), Maputo, Mozambique.

Keywords

Humans, Vibrio cholerae, Cholera, Bacterial Typing Techniques, Cluster Analysis, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Phylogeny, Minisatellite Repeats, Genotype, Mozambique, Genetic Variation, Genotyping Techniques