Ten Cases of Gastroenteritis Possibly Caused by Vibrio fluvialis and its Enterotoxigenicity

Vibrio fluvialis has been recently recognized to cause diarrheal disease in man. However, the pathology of the enteritis caused by this agent is still largely obscure. During the past 4 years, this organism was isolated from the feces of 3 (0.2%) of the 1462 patients with diarrhea. On the other hand, none of the 1709 healthy persons had stool cultures positive for the organism. V. fluvialis strains were isolated from ten patients with diarrhea over a 4-year period. While it is possible that there was another pathogen in these cases, V. fluvialis was identified as the only bacterial pathogen in the stool. Nine were detected in summer season, and eight were domestic cases.The clinical symptoms, including the frequency of watery diarrhea, fever, abdominal pain, and vomiting, resembles that seen in cases associated with V. parahaemolyticus or Aeromonas strain. Four patients noted bloody diarrhea.A causative food (s) was not determined. However, six of the patients had eaten raw sea-foods such as oyster, shellfish and seafish in the 48 hrs before they became ill. In a tenth case, the patient had eaten seafood, but denied eating it raw in past 48 hrs. This organism was also found in natural water, sea water, sewage water, and various seafoods. Our cases suggest that the various seafoods may be transmitted to man. V. fluvialis isolates were examined for enterotoxic activity in suckling mouse tests and Y1 adrenal cell test. Of these strains tested, eight from different sources gave positive reactions in suckling mouse test.More data are needed on the epidemiological studies of the role of this organism in acute diarrhea.