Exhuming Skeletal Remains: How Cholera Deaths of the Past Could Shine a Blue- Light of Hope

Cholera remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. It is currently in its seventh official pandemic, as recognised by the World Health Organization. Whilst the disease remains a scourge of the present, studying its paleopathology could help further with understanding the nature of the disease and its evolution, as well as presenting a potential opportunity for finding a cure or improving current treatment regimes. Cholera is one of a number ofdiseases that has a presence in the archaeological record.

In terms of human osteopathology an important discovery was recently made within the grounds of a cemetery located in an old church in Tuscany, Italy. The exhumation of bodies in this area may provide key information concerning the bacterium responsible for cholera. This article assesses the significance of the on-going excavation.Cholera is an infection of the small intestine. It is one of the world’s oldest diseases and it is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae.  Read more.................

V. cholerae is a Gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, comma-shaped bacterium. The basis of the infection is through V. cholerae secreting choleragen (known as “the cholera toxin”). Structurally, the toxin is similar to heat-labile enterotoxins associated with enteric bacteria. Two serogroups of V. cholerae termed O1 and O139 cause outbreaks. V. cholerae O1 causes the majority of outbreaks, while O139, a more recently discovered serotype identified in Bangladesh in 1992, is, thus far, of less global reach, being confined to South-East Asia.