The presence of diarrhoeagenic bacteria such as Escherichia coli in drinking water indicates faecal and sewage contamination. Testing the microbial quality of drinking water at source (n = 29) and households (n = 43) of 29 peri-urban villages of Bengaluru city, indicated that 80% and 93% of samples respectively were unfit for human consumption as per WHO standards, i.e. nil E. coli in 100 ml sample. This also indicated that water gets contaminated further at the point-of-use when compared to the source.

The seventh cholera pandemic has heavily affected Africa, although the origin and continental spread of the disease remain undefined. We used genomic data from 1070 Vibrio cholerae O1 isolates, across 45 African countries and over a 49-year period, to show that past epidemics were attributable to a single expanded lineage. This lineage was introduced at least 11 times since 1970, into two main regions, West Africa and East/Southern Africa, causing epidemics that lasted up to 28 years.

Salmonella enterica serovar typhimurium extensively remodels the host late endocytic compartments to establish its vacuolar niche within the host cells conducive for its replication, also known as the Salmonella-containing vacuole (SCV). By maintaining a prolonged interaction with late endosomes and lysosomes of the host cells in the form of interconnected network of tubules (Salmonella-induced filaments or SIFs), Salmonella gains access to both membrane and fluid-phase cargo from these compartments.