Vibrio cholerae in Water Environments: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Vibrio cholerae is a water-borne pathogen transmitted via the faecal-oral route, with water being a major vehicle for infection. The pathogen has caused seven pandemics in history, with contaminated water identified as the infection source. Seasonal outbreaks, claiming approximately 21,000-143,000 lives yearly, are facilitated by contaminated water environments. This systematic review, therefore, determined the prevalence of V. cholerae in water environments. A comprehensive literature search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, and SCOPUS. After the screening process, 87 articles were included in our study. RStudio version 4.3.3 was used in conducting our meta-analysis with the data subjected to the random-effects model. The included articles were from 38 countries, which spanned 6 continents. The prevalences of V. cholerae in water environments were as follows: drinking water (15.69%), untreated sewage (57.26%), treated sewage (95.18%), surface water (41.95%), groundwater (26.23%), and others (20.81%). Continental prevalence revealed the following: Australia (85.00%), North America (66.60%), Africa (42.07), South America (39.32%), Asia (29.28%), and Europe (24.48%). There is a high prevalence of V. cholerae in water environments. More effective water treatment methods are needed to drastically reduce its prevalence to insignificant levels, especially in treated drinking water.