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Published: 30 March 2018
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Vibrio bacteria are found in marine and estuarine waters around the globe.[1] Several Vibrio species cause disease in humans.[1] The bacteria thrive in low-salinity waters, and growth booms when sea surface temperature (SST) exceeds 18°C (64°F).[2] A team at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has developed a tool, the ECDC Vibrio Map Viewer, that uses real-time remotely sensed data on SST and sea surface salinity to predict the occurrence of environmental conditions that favor Vibrio proliferation. In a new study in Environmental Health Perspectives, the researchers demonstrate that the ECDC Vibrio Map Viewer accurately predicted habitat conditions in the coastal Baltic Sea that led to an outbreak of Vibrio infections in Sweden in the summer of 2014.[3]
The most infamous member of the Vibrio family is toxigenic V. cholerae, the cause of pandemic cholera; infections with other pathogenic vibrios are relatively rare but can be life-threatening. The number of such Vibrio infections has risen in tandem with increasing SSTs in temperate and cold regions, including coastal Chile, Peru, the Baltic and North Seas, and the North Atlantic.[4][,][5]...