Special Topic of Cholera
Published January 2011
Cholera, which is defined by the World Health Organization as "an acute intestinal infection caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae," has been in the news lately due to a much-publicized outbreak in Haiti in the wake of the devastating earthquakes in 2010. WHO estimates that there are three to five million cases of cholera a year, and 100,000-120,000 deaths due to cholera.
The features of this Special Topic outlined above represent distinct
slices of citation data. By approaching citation data from multiple
angles, we can observe trends and anomalies across
categories—leading to more rich and nuanced stories behind the
data.
The baseline time span for this database is (publication years) January 1, 2000-August 31, 2010 (fourth bimonthly period 2010). This analysis was created using the Web of Science® from Clarivate. The resulting database contained 9,335 (10 years) and 2,622 (2 years) papers; 26,864 authors; 128 nations; 1,652 journals; and 4,872 institutions. See additional information below in the overview & methodology sections.
Topic Overview
An earthquake survivor drinks water
from a container in a provisional camp in
downtown Port-au-Prince
October 30, 2010. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz.
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines cholera as "an acute intestinal infection caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae."1 The extremely virulent disease has a short incubation period and produces an enterotoxin that causes significant watery diarrhea and sometimes vomiting, which, without prompt treatment, can result in severe dehydration and death. Cholera spread worldwide in a series of pandemics starting in the 19th century, and today, WHO estimates that there are three to five million cases of cholera a year, and of these cases, 100,000 to 120,000 deaths.2
Cholera has been in the news lately due to a much-publicized outbreak in Haiti in the wake of the devastating earthquakes in 2010. But there were outbreaks reported in Pakistan and Central Africa last year as well.
In this analysis, Special Topics examines the literature on cholera over the past decade and over the past two years. To construct the initial data pool, the keyword "cholera*" was used to search titles, abstracts, and keywords of original articles, reviews, and proceedings papers published in the Web of Science® database from Clarivate between January 1, 2000 and August 31, 2010. To make the paper lists more on-point, we restricted to those articles containing the keyword "cholera*" in the title.
References:
1 http://www.who.int/topics/cholera/en/
2 http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs107/en/index.html
INTERVIEWs MENU
Read interviews, first-person essays, profiles, and other features about people in a wide variety of fields, along with information on journals & institutions in the topic of Cholera. All of the author comments below are also listed in the site-wide Author Commentaries listings (available by month/year or alphabetically).
July 2011
Stephen
Calderwood Discusses the Infectious Mechanisms of Cholera
According to our Special Topics
analysis of cholera research over the past decade, the work of Dr.
Stephen Calderwood ranks at #10 by total number of papers, based
on 60 papers cited 888 times. In
Essential Science IndicatorsSM from
Clarivate,
Calderwood ranks in the top 1% among scientists in the field of
Microbiology. His overall record in the database includes 77 papers
cited a total of 2,179 times between January 1, 2001 and February 28,
2011. In this interview, he talks with ScienceWatch.com
correspondent Gary Taubes about his highly cited research in cholera.
March 2011
G.
Balakrish Nair on the Microbiology of Cholera
Our
Special Topics analysis of cholera research published from
2000–2010 has identified Dr. G. Balakrish Nair as a highly
cited author in the field of cholera. He ranks at #1 by number of
papers and #3 by total cites, based on 137 papers cited 2,197
times. He is also in the top 1% of scientists in the field of
Microbiology in
Essential Science IndicatorsSM from
Clarivate. In
this interview, ScienceWatch.com correspondent Simon Mitton
talks with Nair about his work on cholera.
February 2011
John
Mekalanos on the Human Importation of Cholera
In our Special Topics analysis on
cholera research over the past decade, the work of Dr. John
Mekalanos ranks at #1 by total cites, #7 by number of papers, and
#10 by cites per paper, based on 62 papers cited a total of 2,967
times. His record in Essential Science
IndicatorsSM from Clarivate, includes 74
papers, the majority of which are classified in the field of
Microbiology, cited a total of 3,767 times between January 1, 2000
and October 31, 2010. This month, ScienceWatch.com
correspondent Gary Taubes talks with Mekalanos about his highly
cited work as it relates to cholera.
Thresholds
Once the database was in place, it was used to generate list of authors, journals, institutions, and nations. Rankings for author, journal, institution, and country are listed in three ways: according to total cites, total papers, and total cites/paper*. The paper thresholds and corresponding percentages used to determine scientist, institution, country, and journal rankings according to total cites/paper, and total papers respectively are as follows:
| Entity | Authors | Institutions | Journals | Nations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thresholds | 181 | 369 | 66 | 23 |
| Percentage: | 1% | 1% | 10% | 50% |
| *Unless otherwise specified, all rankings have a >= 5 paper threshold for all measures. | ||||
Methodology
The baseline time span for this database is (publication years) January 1, 2000-August 31, 2010 (fourth bimonthly period 2010). This analysis was created using the Web of Science® from Clarivate. The resulting database contained 15,317 (10 years) and 4,328 (2 years) papers; 28,915 authors; 82 nations; 626 journals; and 2,901 institutions.
Keywords
The Internet search terms for this Topic are:
CHOLERA, VIBRIO CHOLERAE, CHOLERA TOXIN, GENOMIC ANALYSIS, INTESTINAL FLUID SECRETION, MSBA, MULTIDRUG RESISTANCE, THIAZOLIDINONE CFTR INHIBITOR, PROTEIN DISULFIDE ISOMERASE, HUMAN DENDRITIC CELLS, TH2 PRIMING, ENDEMIC, PANDEMIC, MUCOSA, VACCINE PROTEINS, OLFACTORY TISSUES, ENDOCYTIC MECHANISMS, HOST-INDUCED EPIDEMIC, EL NINO, BACTERIAL PROTEIN SECRETION SYSTEM, CYCLIC DIGUANYLATE, BIOFILM FORMATION, CLIMATE, INFECTIOUS DISEASE, MOLECULAR ANALYSIS, ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE GENE CLUSTERS, PROTEIN TOXINS, TRANSPORT PATHWAYS, COLONY MORPHOLOGY, QUORUM SENSING, CHOLERA DYNAMICS, ALLOSTERIC ACTIVATION, CHITIN, SMALL RNA, COLONIZATION, OUTER MEMBRANE VESICLES, SUSCEPTIBILITY, HOUSEHOLD CONTACTS, VACCINE, TRANSLOCATION, IMMUNIZATION, NANODISCS, ENVIRONMENTAL SIGNATURES, CYCLIC-AMP, PATHOGENICITY ISLANDS.
Reuters PictureS and Featured Images
A woman suffering from the symptoms of
cholera is taken in a wheelbarrow to a
clinic in Harare December 12, 2008.
REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo.
The images throughout the Special Topic of Cholera are from Reuters Pictures. Most pictures directly relate to the papers and locations in the database.
About Reuters Pictures
This site includes material which is copyright 2011 Reuters. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.
Reuters and the Reuters logo are registered trademarks, and trademarks of the Clarivate group of companies. For additional information on Reuters photographic services, please visit the web site at http://pictures.reuters.com.
Featured Image: Densa Tadicha, 10, collects water from a pond used by animals at El-Ley village in the drought affected region of Moyale. The consumption of contaminated water from shallow wells and ponds meant for cattle, poor nutrition and unsafe hygiene practices have led to an outbreak of cholera and acute watery diarrhoea in the Moyale region of Ethiopia and Kenya. Picture taken June 12, 2009. REUTERS/Irada Humbatov.