Causes of food poisoning

Food poisoning is basically food or water borne infections. It may be caused due to bacteria, virus, parasites or toxins or chemicals present in food. The onset of the symptoms and severity depends on the time that the infection takes to multiply and take hold. This time is called the incubation period. There are over 250 food borne illnesses. The […]

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How cholera bacteria make people so sick

The enormous adaptability of the cholera bacterium explains why it is able to claim so many victims. Professor Ariane Briegel from the Leiden Institute of Biology has now discovered that this adaptability is due to rapid sensory changes in the bacterium. Her research has been published in PNAS. The Vibrio cholerae bacterium is the cause of cholera, a devastating illness […]

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Responding to cholera before it strikes

Research by University of Maryland microbiologist Rita Colwell is enabling a new British-led international aid effort to predict and stop potential epidemics of the disease cholera before they happen. This international effort, which has already begun in Yemen, draws on decades of Colwell’s work to understand the water-borne bacterium Vibrio cholerae that causes the disease, and uses a computer model […]

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Cholera kills scores in DR Congo, Niger

A cholera epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed 127 people since February, while a further 22 have died in Niger, officials said on Wednesday. “A total of 2,100 patients are currently being treated and since February we have registered 125 deaths,” said Hippolyte Mutombo Mbwebwe, health minister in the eastern Kasai region. Ten more cases, including two […]

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Fast-acting cholera vaccine could curb outbreaks

A tricked-out cholera vaccine starts protecting against the deadly disease within a day, experiments in rabbits suggest. The rapid protection offered by this designer vaccine may one day limit the spread of cholera outbreaks, says Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator Matthew Waldor. Waldor and his colleagues discovered an ability unique to the vaccine, called HaitiV: It protects rabbits from […]

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