During the conference, she talked about the new methods implemented to identify and trace pathogenic microbes of waterborne diseases.
According to Rita Colwell, "in comparing isolates of the human intestinal micro-biome, clear differences in geographical distribution of strains can be shown. The studies of known etiologies can be used as a template to predict etiologies of unknown strains".
Furthermore the genome analysis revealed that healthy individuals are carriers of pathogenic microbes in small quantities. In the case of cholera, patients were carrying anywhere between four to ten pathogens, including Vibrio cholerae, Shigella ssp and Salmonella ssp.