Cholera-Like Illness Due to Aeromonas sobria

Abstract

A Thai woman from Bangkok was admitted to a hospital in Paris for a cholera-like illness. A culture of her "rice-water" diarrhea was negative for Vibrio cholerae and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli but was positive for Aeromonas sobria. This strain produced enterotoxin, cytolysin, proteolysin, hemolysin, and a cell-rounding factor. Acute -and convalescent-phase sera showed an increase in neutralizing antibodies to enterotoxin, cytolysin, and hemolysin. The enterotoxin, which was labile at 100 C, induced an accumulation of fluid in the rabbit ileal loop model and was not neutralized by antiserum to cholera toxin. Suckling mouse assays and rabbit permeability skin tests were negative, and the Y1 mouse adrenal cell assay produced not true cytotonic effect. This report, the first of an infection due to A. sobria alone, provides evidence that A. sobria is an enteric pathogen of humans that can cause a toxin-mediated, life-threatening illness.

Distribution and Characterization of Hemolytic, and Enteropathogenic Motile Aeromonas in Aquatic Environment

“…Among the motile aeromonads, A. hydrophila and A. sobria have been associated with human illness (7,8,13) . The present study revealed that A. caviae was predominant, comprising 43%, followed by A. sobria (35%) and A. hydrophila (20%).…”

“…Ashida River flows through rural, suburban (stations 1, 2; upper region), and urban areas (stations 3, 4; lower region) of the east portion of Hiroshima Prefecture and shed into the Seto Inland Sea (stations 6 to 8; marine) with a total length of about 90 km. Station 5 is located in a branch stream, Takaya River, which is highly polluted and sheds the effluents of the slaughter house situated in its upstream along with the domestic discharges into Ashida River (5) ; and Seto Inland Sea (6)(7)(8) …”

The GenusAeromonas: Taxonomy, Pathogenicity, and Infection

“…On extremely rare occasions, Aeromonas has been linked to cholera-like disease (138). The most definitive example of such infections is a case report by Champsaur et al (34) describing cholera-like disease with "rice-water" stools in a 67-year-old Thai woman. During the first 2 days of infection, the patient lost 13 liters of "rice-water" stools and received 21 liters of intravenous fluids (saline and plasma) in an attempt to return her to normal electrolyte status.…”

Biochemical Characteristics, Enterotoxigenicity and Susceptibility to Antimicrobial Agents of Clinical Isolates of Aeromonas Species Encountered in the Western Region of Saudi Arabia

“…Individual species of Aeromonas have been associated with particular clinical syndromes, the frequency of which varies geographically and seasonally (Champsaur et al, 1982;; however, reports on individual species remain sparse. Certain strains of Aeromonas produce an enterotoxin (Sanyal et al, 1975), and this factor is reported to be highly associated with certain biochemical characteristics Turnbull et al, 1984).…”