HAS CHOLERA ALTERED THE HUMAN GENOME? BANGLA DESHI CITIZENS SEEM TO HAVE ADAPTED TO THE DISEASE

 


Cholera is one of the most feared diseases on earth.  It is ubiquitous in poor countries, and outbreaks can run like wildfire in cramped or overcrowded conditions.  In certain areas of the world, like India and Bangla Desh it is a feared annual recurrence, when the monsoons sweep dirt and sewage in torrential flooding that contaminates wells and everything in between.

But strangely, if not intuitively, the human body seems to be evolving a self defense that is adaptive in nature.  

Some Bangla Deshi citizens seem to have become partially or wholly immune to cholera.  This discovery is very important, because it shows that the human genome has modified to combat the disease from within.  

The epicenter of cholera in the world is the Ganges River Delta.  Its waters have been killing people for over a thousand years.  Almost everyone who lives near it becomes ill with it by the time they reach teenagehood.  

Without treatment, cholera can kill within hours.  

The first indication of the genomic adaptation is the fact that more and more mild cases of the disease were observed in the high risk area of the Delta.  Some of the people there did not get sick at all

People with type O blood are more susceptible to cholera in general, than other blood groups. But aside from that, the lessened susceptibility is still a mystery.  Scientists however, seem to have pinpointed a genetic variant(s) in families from Dhaka, that were different from the ones in Africa or Asia. 

After testing a gourp of 105 people and 167 who lived in proximity, or were family of the patients, 28 of them had genetic variants, specifically five genes that differed from those people who were sick. 

The people who were hit hardest by the disease, instead had three different genetic variants, all of which are implicated in regulating fluid loss from the intestine. 

Since there is no vaccine for Cholera, understanding these variants could lead one day to induce long lasting protection from the disease, aside from the partial one that is acquired from having the disease itself.  

Source: Science Daily/ 7.4.13

 

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