Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41706742›Full record

ArticlePLoS computational biology2026

Quantifying the population-level impact of expanded antibiotic treatment for cholera outbreak management.

Sharia M Ahmed, Cormac R LaPrete, Iza Ciglenecki, Andrew Azman, Daniel T Leung, Lindsay T Keegan

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PLoS computational biology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Sharia M AhmedDivision of Epidemiology, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4060-5712
Cormac R LaPreteDepartment of Mathematics, University of Utah College of Science, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America.
Iza CigleneckiMédecins sans Frontières, Geneva, Switzerland.
Andrew AzmanDepartment of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America.
Daniel T LeungDivision of Infectious Diseases, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8401-0801
Lindsay T KeeganDivision of Epidemiology, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Since 2021, there has been a resurgence in the number of cholera cases, countries affected, and the case fatality rate. Because most cholera patients recover without antibiotic treatment, current cholera treatment guidelines only consider the tradeoffs between patient recovery and antibiotic stewardship. However, antibiotics also greatly reduce bacteria shedding, creating a potential role for antibiotics in cholera outbreak response through reduced transmission. We developed a compartmental model of cholera transmission in a non-endemic setting to quantify the potential impact of expanded antibiotic treatment on disease burden and antibiotic use. Through simulations, we evaluated different outbreak scenarios, by varying the reproductive number, care-seeking behavior, and proportion of non-severe cases receiving antibiotics. We found that expanding antibiotic treatment could significantly reduce the final outbreak size under certain outbreak characteristics. In these scenarios, treating non-severely symptomatic infections with antibiotics decreased cholera transmission and, in some cases, the total number of antibiotic doses used. We show that the effectiveness of expanded antibiotic treatment is highly dependent on achieving high care-seeking rates among non-severely symptomatic infections and tailoring the approach to specific outbreak conditions. While expanding antibiotic eligibility could enhance outbreak control in some settings, careful consideration of antibiotic resistance risks is necessary in high-transmission contexts.

Indexed as

Anti-Bacterial AgentsCholeraDisease OutbreaksComputational BiologyComputer SimulationHumansModels, BiologicalAnti-Bacterial Agents

Identifiers

PMID41706742
PMCPMC12931884

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.