Incidence and clinical symptoms of Aeromonas-associated travellers' diarrhoea in Tokyo.
In a survey examining the causes of travellers' diarrhoea treated in Tokyo between July 1986 and December 1995, Aeromonas species were isolated from 1265 (5.5%) of 23,215 travellers returning from developing countries. Aeromonas species were the fourth most frequent enteropathogen isolated, following enterotoxigenic E. coli (8.5%), Salmonella spp. (7.6%) and Plesiomonas shigelloides (5.6%). Aeromonas species were found in 1191 (5.6%) of 21,257 patients with diarrhoea and in 74 (3.8%) of 1958 healthy individuals without diarrhoea. Mixed infection was observed in 512 (40.5%) cases. No significant difference in the prevalence of Aeromonas by year, season, age distributions, or sex was observed, but a slight difference was noted depending on the country where the travellers visited. Of the 1265 Aeromonas isolates, 893 strains (70.6%) were A. veronii biovar sobria, 330 (26.1%) were A. hydrophila, and 42 (3.3%) were A. caviae. The clinical symptoms of patients from whom Aeromonas species was isolated as the only potential enteric pathogen were almost similar, which were watery diarrhoea (about 60%), abdominal cramps (43%), fever (around 15%), and nausea or vomiting (13%). Although the severity of illness was milder than that of enterotoxigenic E. coli alone, these data suggest that Aeromonas species are important enteric pathogens in travellers' diarrhoea.
Yamada
S
S
Tama Branch Laboratory, Tokyo Metropolitan Research Laboratory of Public Health, Japan.
Matsushita
S
S
Dejsirilert
S
S
Kudoh
Y
Y
D000333:Aeromonas / Q000145:classification; D003906:Developing Countries; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000382:microbiology*; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D005260:Female; D016905:Gram-Negative Bacterial Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D011159:Population Surveillance; D015995:Prevalence; D012703:Serotyping; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014041:Tokyo; D014195:Travel