Nobelist Lord Florey of penicillin fame said to van Heyningen8: “The cholera problem is quite simple - the cholera mucinase stripped the protective layer of mucin from the intestinal epithelium, so cholera should be looked at as a kind of internal third degree burn, and no wonder that all that fluid poured into the gut”. The gene discussed is MUC5AC; the disease is vibrio infectious disease.