Ancestral Origin and Dissemination Dynamics of Reemerging Toxigenic Vibrio cholerae, Haiti.

The 2010 cholera epidemic in Haiti was thought to have ended in 2019, and the Prime Minister of Haiti declared the country cholera-free in February 2022. On September 25, 2022, cholera cases were again identified in Port-au-Prince. We compared genomic data from 42 clinical Vibrio cholerae strains from 2022 with data from 327 other strains from Haiti and 1,824 strains collected worldwide. The 2022 isolates were homogeneous and closely related to clinical and environmental strains circulating in Haiti during 2012-2019. Bayesian hypothesis testing indicated that the 2022 clinical isolates shared their most recent common ancestor with an environmental lineage circulating in Haiti in July 2018. Our findings strongly suggest that toxigenic V. cholerae O1 can persist for years in aquatic environmental reservoirs and ignite new outbreaks. These results highlight the urgent need for improved public health infrastructure and possible periodic vaccination campaigns to maintain population immunity against V. cholerae.

A population-based serological survey of Vibrio cholerae antibody titers in Ouest Department, Haiti in the year prior to the 2022 cholera outbreak.

After three years with no confirmed cholera cases in Haiti, an outbreak of Vibrio cholerae O1 emerged in October 2022. Levels of pre-existing antibodies provide an estimate of prior immunologic exposure, reveal potentially relevant immune responses, and set a baseline for future serosurveillance. We analyzed dried blood spots collected in 2021 from a population-weighted representative cross-sectional serosurvey in two communes in the Ouest Department of Haiti. We found lower levels of circulating IgG and IgA antibodies against V. cholerae lipopolysaccharide (LPS, IgG and IgA p<0.0001) in those below 5 years of age compared to those five years and older. Among a subset of patients with higher titers of antibodies, we were unable to detect any functional (vibriocidal) antibodies. In conclusion, the lack of detectable functional antibodies, and age-discordant levels of V. cholerae LPS IgG, suggest that populations in Haiti may be highly susceptible to cholera disease, especially among young children.