Clinical relevance of Aeromonas sM503

Abstract

More than 100 published cases of Aeromonas infection over the last 6 years have involved both healthy and immunocompromised patients. The spectrum of clinical presentations is in line with those previously reported, namely, gastroenteritis, haemolytic uremic syndrome, urine, wound and burn infections, infections associated with leech therapy, necrotizing fasciitis, pneumonia, meningitis and eye infections. Despite that, new syndromes including intravascular gas production, epididymitis and pyelonephritis have also been reported. New data seem to indicate an increasing tendency to affect patients with hepatobiliary disease, especially those with cirrhosis, culminating in a rapid and fatal outcome. As it has traditionally been the case, A. hydrophila was still the most frequently reported species although it is not the only or most frequent species in reality. The false importance attributed to this species is due to limitations in the identification methods for other pathogenic species. Unfortunately, awareness or suspicion of the involvement of Aeromonas in the spectrum of clinical presentations reviewed is still insufficient for the correct management of the infection. ß 2005 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Reviews in Medical Microbiology 2005, 16:145-153

Updated phylogeny of the genus Aeromonas

“…Species of the genus Aeromonas are common inhabitants of aquatic environments and have been described in connection with fish and human diseases (Altwegg, 1999;Austin & Adams, 1996;Figueras, 2005;Saavedra et al, 2004). This genus belongs to the family Aeromonadaceae (Colwell et al, 1986;Martínez-Murcia et al, 1992a;Yáñez et al, 2003) and, over the last two decades, the number of recognized species has expanded very rapidly.…”

Occurrence and features of chromosomally encoded carbapenemases in Gram-negative bacteria in farm animals sampled at slaughterhouse level

“…Rather, they represent ubiquitous, opportunistically pathogenic bacteria. Nevertheless, in particular A. vero nii has been implicated in a broad range of human infections, predominantly biliary tract infections and secondary bacteraemia (Figueras, 2005). In this species, carbapenem resistance is due to chromosomally-encoded blaimiS, which is known to be co-transcribed with other chromosomally located β-lactamases with overexpression induced in the presence of β-lactam or carbapenem antibiotics (Walsh et al, 1995).…”

Aeromonas taiwanensis sp. nov. and Aeromonas sanarellii sp. nov., clinical species from Taiwan

“…The most common clinical presentation of Aeromonas is diarrhoea, followed by localized soft-tissue infections and bacteraemia, the prevailing associated species being A. veronii, A. caviae and A. hydrophila (Figueras, 2005). In recent years, numerous cases of Aeromonas infection have been described in Taiwan (Huang et al, 2007;Wu et al, 2007 and references therein).…”

“…The genus belongs to the family Aeromonadaceae, order Aeromonadales, class Gammaproteobacteria The taxonomy of this genus is complex because, despite each species apparently having specific phenotypic characteristics, biochemical identification is laborious and very imprecise, showing poor correlation with genotypic identification (Borrell et al, 1998;Soler et al, 2003;Figueras, 2005;Ormen et al, 2005). The 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity among species of the genus is very high, ranging from 96.7 to 100 % (Martínez-Murcia et al, 1992Saavedra et al, 2006).…”

“…Aeromonas strains are primarily inhabitants of aquatic environments, often associated with fish and human diseases (Figueras, 2005;Martin-Carnahan & Joseph, 2005). The most common clinical presentation of Aeromonas is diarrhoea, followed by localized soft-tissue infections and bacteraemia, the prevailing associated species being A. veronii, A. caviae and A. hydrophila (Figueras, 2005).…”