The Lake Chad Basin, an Isolated and Persistent Reservoir of Vibrio cholerae O1: A Genomic Insight into the Outbreak in Cameroon, 2010

The prevalence of reported cholera was relatively low around the Lake Chad basin until 1991. Since then, cholera outbreaks have been reported every couple of years. The objective of this study was to investigate the 2010/2011 Vibrio cholerae outbreak in Cameroon to gain insight into the genomic make-up of the V. cholerae strains responsible for the outbreak. Twenty-four strains were isolated and whole genome sequenced. Known virulence genes, resistance genes and integrating conjugative element (ICE) elements were identified and annotated. A global phylogeny (378 genomes) was inferred using a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis. The Cameroon outbreak was found to be clonal and clustered distant from the other African strains. In addition, a subset of the strains contained a deletion that was found in the ICE element causing less resistance. These results suggest that V. cholerae is endemic in the Lake Chad basin and different from other African strains.