Science. As the climate gets warmer, certain toxic and pathogenic bacteria common.
A new study shows that bacteria of the genus Vibrio increased in recent years. Vibrio, which occurs in the oceans, can cause severe gastroenteritis and infected wounds.
The best known species of the genus Vibrio cholerae is causing the feared disease cholera. But the genus contains many species, which can cause many different types of infections.
In Sweden occurs on average about 20 cases of Vibrio infections each year. Usually it is in the form of ear infections, in some cases by so-called vibriosis. In general, people become infected when they bathed in seawater which contained the bacteria.
– This is usually the most cases during summers with heat waves when the sea water has become very hot, says Marika Hjertqvist, epidemiologist at the Public Health Agency.
This is consistent with the new study. By examining the amounts of plankton samples collected and stored by researchers in the UK between 1958 and 2011 have been able to establish that the Vibrio bacteria become increasingly common in the North Atlantic and the North Sea in the period.
the increase has been fairly accurately followed the upward curve of seawater temperatures. Since 1958, the sea water has become 1.5 degrees warmer in the North Atlantic area and this has obviously benefited the bacteria.
the result has been more and more cases of infections in Europe and the US since 2000. Most have involved severe infections in the abdomen, then people eating infected seafood, such as oysters. The latter filters water to access the nutrients and the process can take up large amounts of bacteria.
According to the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may we expect more and more cases of infections in the future as the climate gets warmer.
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