El Niño is spreading killer BACTERIA: Researchers find Cholera-like disease 'piggybacking' on weather phenomenon

El Niño is spreading killer BACTERIA: Researchers find Cholera-like disease 'piggybacking' on weather phenomenon

• Climate pattern has been in effect since last year
  
• Has now peaked but will remain strong and continue to influence world weather conditions in the coming months
  
  
  

By Mark Prigg For Dailymail.com



Published: 16:56 EST, 1 March 2016 | Updated: 17:20 EST, 1 March 201

El Niño could be transporting and spreading waterborne diseases like cholera thousands of miles, across oceans, with significant impacts for public health, researchers have warned.
They say illnesses caused by waterborne bacteria reported in Latin America seem to be moving in tandem with when and where warm El Niño waters make contact with the land.
Experts warned the finding could have 'huge significance for public health'.
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The 2016 El Niño 'Godzilla': Researchers say illnesses caused by waterborne bacteria reported in Latin America seem to be moving in tandem with when and where warm El Niño waters make contact with the land.


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Comparing data from 1997 (pictured) with 2015 highlights the 'extraordinary effects' of El Niño over recent times.

PREVIOUS OUTBREAKS 

Over the past 30 years, coinciding with the last three significant El Niño events in 1990/91, 1997/98 and 2010, new variants of waterborne pathogens emerged in Latin America.
These included a devastating cholera outbreak in Peru in 1990, leading to over 13,000 deaths, as well as two instances in 1997 and 2010 where new variants the bacterium Vibrio parahaemolyticus led to widespread human illness through contaminated shellfish. 
The study, published in Nature Microbiology by a team of international researchers in the UK and US, analysed how the arrival of new and devastating Vibrio diseases in Latin America has concurred in both time and space with significant El Niño events.
El Niño describes the unusual warming of surface waters along the tropical west coast of South America. 
These events tend to occur every 3 - 7 years; something many suggest have become more regular and extreme in recent years, as a result of climate change.
Through the new study, the result of a long-term collaboration with the National Institute of Health (INS) in Peru, the authors spotted illnesses caused by waterborne bacteria reported in Latin America seem to be moving in tandem with when and where warm El Niño waters make contact with the land.

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Most significantly, drawing on new data derived from whole genome sequencing of bacterial strains, they suggest there are links between organisms that are causing illnesses in Asia with those that emerge in Latin America.
Over the past 30 years, coinciding with the last three significant El Niño events in 1990/91, 1997/98 and 2010, new variants of waterborne pathogens emerged in Latin America.

CHOLERA - A VIRULENT KILLER

Cholera is an acute intestinal infection, caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacteria, vibrio cholerae.
It is extremely virulent, affecting both adults and children, and can kill within hours.
The incubation period is short, spanning from less than one day to five.
Those struck by the infection suffer copious, painless, watery diarrhoea that can quickly result in severe dehydration and death if treatment is not received quickly.


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Cholera is an acute intestinal infection, caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacteria, vibrio cholerae. It is extremely virulent, affecting both adults and children, and can kill within hours
Around eight in 10 sufferers will develop no symptoms, but the bacteria can live in their faeces for up to 10 days, and are shed back into the environment, potentially infecting other people.
Among those who do suffer the symptoms, 80 per cent have mild or moderate experiences, while 20 per cent are at risk of the potentially fatal severe dehydration.
Researchers have estimated there are 1.4 to 4.3 million cases, and 28,000 to 142,000 deaths worldwide each year from cholera, according to the WHO.
Around 80 per cent of cases can be treated successfully with oral rehydration salts.
These included a devastating cholera outbreak in Peru in 1990, leading to over 13,000 deaths, as well as two instances in 1997 and 2010 where new variants the bacterium Vibrio parahaemolyticus led to widespread human illness through contaminated shellfish.
Lead author from the 's Milner Centre for Evolution and Department of Biology & Biochemistry,
Dr Jaime Martinez-Urtaza University of Bath explains: 'Through our findings we suggest that so-called vibrios - microscopic bacteria commonly found in seawater - can attach to larger organisms such as zooplankton to travel oceans.


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El Nino is the result of interaction between the ocean and atmosphere in an area of the Pacific

WHAT IS EL NIÑO? 

El Niño is caused by a shift in the distribution of warm water in the Pacific Ocean around the equator.
Usually the wind blows strongly from east to west, due to the rotation of the Earth, causing water to pile up in the western part of the Pacific.
This pulls up colder water from the deep ocean in the eastern Pacific.
However, in an El Niño, the winds pushing the water get weaker and cause the warmer water to shift back towards the east. This causes the eastern Pacific to get warmer.
But as the ocean temperature is linked to the wind currents, this causes the winds to grow weaker still and so the ocean grows warmer, meaning the El Niño grows.
This change in air and ocean currents around the equator can have a major impact on the weather patterns around the globe by creating pressure anomalies in the atmosphere.
'Numerous previous studies have shown how such vibrios bind to and use these larger organisms as a source of energy and through this mechanism, we suggest, they are essentially able to piggyback to travel such enormous diseases, driven by ocean currents.
'The effects of El Niño events and their impacts on local weather, fisheries and the risk of more extreme meteorological events are already well-documented. 
'Now understanding the role the ocean currents are also playing in transporting these disease has huge significance for public health campaigns in those countries.'
Co-author, Dr Craig Baker-Austin from the UK Cefas Weymouth laboratory added: 'An El Niño event could represent an efficient long-distance 'biological corridor', allowing the displacement of marine organisms from distant areas. 
'This process could provide both a periodic and unique source of new pathogens into America with serious implications for the spread and control of disease.'
The 'El Niño' climate phenomenon which has helped push global temperatures to record levels and caused extreme weather, floods and droughts, is one of the most powerful ever, experts have previously saidrevealed.
The climate pattern, which has been in effect since last year, has now peaked but will remain strong and continue to influence world weather conditions in the coming months, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said.
El Niño is the result of interaction between the ocean and atmosphere in an area of the Pacific that occurs irregularly between every two and seven years, affecting the climate and increasing global temperatures. 


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Warm temperatures in the Arctic during January have been linked to a different phenomenon known as the Arctic Oscillation. This involves differences in air pressure over the Arctic and lower latitudes
Its peak tends to occur at the end of the calendar year - giving it its Spanish name for the Christ Child - and the 2015-16 El Nino saw eastern and central tropical Pacific temperatures more than 2C above average late last year.
While the figures provide evidence that the current El Nino is one of the strongest on record, similar to events in 1997-98 and 1982-83, it is too early to tell if it is the strongest ever recorded, the WMO said.
Last year was the hottest year on record globally, with temperatures pushed 0.76C above average by man-made climate change and the strong El Nino, and scientists warn 2016 is likely to follow suit.
WMO secretary general Petteri Taalas said: 'We have just witnessed one of the most powerful ever El Nino events which caused extreme weather in countries on all continents and helped fuel record global heat in 2015.
'In meteorological terms, this El Nino is now in decline. 
'But we cannot lower our guard as it is still quite strong and in humanitarian and economic terms, its impacts will continue for many months to come.
'Parts of South America and East Africa are still recovering from torrential rains and flooding.
'The economic and human toll from drought - which by its nature is a slowly developing disaster - is becoming increasingly apparent in southern and the Horn of Africa, central America and a number of other regions,' he said.
The 2015-16 El Nino ha been linked to below average rainfall in southern Africa, including Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa, while last year's Indian monsoon was well below average.




Droughts in South East Asia helped fuel wildfires in Indonesia, causing pollution that had significant repercussions for health in the region, while El Nino also contributed to a hotter, drier year in Australia.
The phenomenon has also been linked to severe flooding in Paraguay and scientists are predicting above average rainfall in the next few months for parts of Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina.
But parts of central America and Caribbean countries have been affected by severe drought, while El Nino is also affecting temperature and rainfall patterns in North America.
And record ocean temperatures, in part caused by El Nino, have contributed to a major coral bleaching event, a process which damages and destroys coral reefs and affects the species and people that rely on them.

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