Genomic insights into Vibrio cholerae isolates associated with cholera outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo between 2018 and 2022. Genomic insights into Vibrio cholerae isolates associated with cholera outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo between 2018 and 2022

For the past three decades, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been severely affected by recurrent cholera outbreaks. Genomic studies have shown that all the isolates of V. cholerae causing cholera belonged to the 10th transmission event within the third wave of V. cholerae O1 El Tor of the 7th cholera pandemic (7PET). In this study, 174 clinical V. cholerae isolated between 2018 and 2022 from the Great Lakes Region (GLR) provinces of North-Kivu, South-Kivu, and Tanganyika, as well as from the Kasai Oriental province in the center of the country, were whole-genome sequenced and their genomes analyzed for phylogenomic changes compared to V. cholerae isolates from past years in the same country