Clinical Immunology of Cholera - Current Trends and Directions for Future Advancement

Cholera remains a feared, aggressive, infectious and lethal disease today, despite several decades of intense research, concerted public health modalities designed to prevent, and to control outbreaks, availability of efficacious vaccines aimed at containing its contagious spread, and effective patient-centered medical interventions for reducing morbidity and mortality. Despite these advances, cholera still strikes communities around the world, especially in countries and regions of the globe where medical and nursing care cannot be as effectively proffered to the population at risk as in First World economies. Case in point, the number of suspected cholera cases that currently afflicts Yemen escalates at an "unprecedented rate", according to the World Health Organization. Here, following a brief introduction of the history of the medical knowledge about cholera, we discuss current trends of our understanding of clinical immune surveillance against the bacillus that causes cholera, vibrio Cholera (vCh). We cite the current state of best available evidence about anticholera vaccines, and outline certain directions for future study to characterize the clinical immunology of cholera.