Updated perspectives on emerging vibrios associated with human infections

... This review describes the ecological, clinical and epidemiological features of emerging vibrios and discusses what laboratory methods are being used for the detection of pathogenic vibrios in clinical, environmental and food samples. After selecting articles illustrative of the current scientific research on pathogenic vibrios, the review focuses on the need for better insight into the risk factors of emerging infections to establish adequate prevention procedures. For a long time research focused especially on cholera vibrios because of the severity of the disease they produce but over the last decade several studies have involved relatively ‘minor’Vibrio species of medical interest, some of which are described as emerging pathogens able to cause mild to severe human diseases. In literature an ‘emerging’ pathogen is usually defined as a micro‐organism whose ability to cause disease has only recently been identified. Emerging diseases are commonly associated with many specific factors, such as ecological modifications, microbial adaptations, human demographic changes and behaviour, travel and commerce, technology and industry, breakdown in public health measures, and finally, the increasing number of susceptible people. Some Vibrio species are not emerging pathogens in the strict sense, but because some circumstances allow them to emerge or re‐emerge as significant pathogens, also in developed countries.