Phage types of Vibrio cholerae O1 and O139 in the past decade in India.

Cholera has been a prevalent disease worldwide since the early 19th century. Vibrio cholerae O1 and O139 are the two serogroups that have been mainly implicated in causing cholera. This study reports the results of biotyping, serotyping and phage typing of V. cholerae O1 and O139 (1998-2007) strains received from different parts of India for the identification of the trends in the occurrence and spread of cholera in the country. However, there has been a notable steep decline in the occurrence of V. cholerae O139 strains over the past few years resulting in no strain of V. cholerae O139 being received from any part of India in 2007 and 2008. Of the total strains received, 79.1% were serotyped as Ogawa and the remaining 20.9% were found to be Inaba, which indicates that Ogawa was the predominant serotype. Almost 100% typeability was observed with the new scheme of V. cholerae O1, with type 27 being the dominant phage type and V. cholerae O139 strains were clustered into the predominant phage type T-1. From the phage typing and serotyping results, it can be concluded that V. cholerae O1 (T-27) and O139 (T-1) strains circulate throughout the country at any given time.