What is the scientific name for the bacterium that causes cholera?

The scientific name for the bacterium that causes cholera is Vibrio cholerae. It is a Gram-negative, comma-shaped bacterium, and only particular toxigenic strains—not every V. cholerae strain—cause epidemic cholera.

The organism lives naturally in aquatic environments, including brackish water and estuaries, where it can associate with plankton and shellfish. People usually become infected by consuming water or food contaminated with fecal matter. In the intestine, toxin-producing strains trigger the profuse watery diarrhea that can rapidly cause dangerous dehydration.

Filippo Pacini described the organism in the nineteenth century, but its role in cholera was later established more convincingly through Robert Koch’s investigations during outbreaks in Egypt and India. The name is also easy to confuse with Salmonella or Shigella, which cause other intestinal illnesses. The serogroups O1 and O139 are especially associated with widespread cholera outbreaks.