Non-O Group 1 Vibrio cholerae Gastroenteritis in the United States

Fourteen sporadic cases of non-O group 1 Vibrio cholerae gastroenteritis were identified through isolates submitted to the Centers for Disease Control in 1979. All the ill persons had diarrhea, 13 had abdominal cramps, 10 had fever, and three had vomiting; in four cases the patients had bloody diarrhea. Five patients had traveled outside the United States before they became ill. All nine domestically acquired cases were in patients who had eaten raw oysters within 72 hours of onset of illness; in a matched case-control study, illness in these patients was strongly associated with eating raw seafood (p less than 0.0001). Only one isolate produced heat-labile toxin by a Y-1 adrenal cell assay. All isolates were susceptible to tetracycline, chloramphenicol, kanamycin, and cephalothin.