Spotting cholera via satellite

Terra Daily: Cholera outbreaks may soon be predicted using satellite sensors, paving the way for preemptive medicine in countries that suffer epidemics, says Distinguished University Professor Rita Colwell, speaking today (Wednesday 2 April 2008) at the Society for General Microbiology's 162nd meeting being held this week at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.

The cholera Vibrio lives in zooplankton and can be found in bays, estuaries and rivers in temperate and tropical regions.

"Scientists have established a definable relationship between sea surface temperature, sea surface height and cholera epidemics," says Professor Colwell, from the University of Maryland, US. "We can predict cholera epidemics by monitoring these factors using satellite sensors."…

An electron microscope image of Vibrio cholerae bacteria, from T.J. Kirn, M.J. Lafferty, C.M.P Sandoe and R.K. Taylor, 2000, "Delineation of pilin domains required for bacterial association into microcolonies and intestinal colonization", Molecular Microbiology, Vol. 35(4):896-910, Wikimedia Commons