Pandemic serovars (O3:K6 and O4:K68) of Vibrio parahaemolyticus associated with diarrhea in Mozambique: spread of the pandemic into the African continent.
Forty-two episodes of Vibrio parahaemolyticus infections were detected in Beira, Mozambique, from January to May 2004. The majority of the isolates (81%) belonged to the pandemic serovars (O3:K6 and O4:K68) of V. parahaemolyticus. The pandemic serovars were positive by group-specific PCR (GS-PCR) and a PCR specific for open reading frame ORF8 (ORF8-PCR), which are molecular markers of the pandemic clone, and were positive for tdh but negative for trh. The remaining 19% of the strains also possessed the tdh gene but were GS-PCR and ORF8-PCR negative and did not belong to the pandemic serovars. Patients with V. parahaemolyticus infection were older (mean age, 27 years) than patients infected by other diarrheal agents (mean age, 21 years). Ten percent of diarrhea patients from whom no V. parahaemolyticus was cultured were severely dehydrated, but none of the V. parahaemolyticus cases were severely dehydrated. This is the first report of the isolation of pandemic strains of V. parahaemolyticus in sub-Saharan Africa and clearly indicates that the pandemic of V. parahaemolyticus has spread into the African continent.
Ansaruzzaman
M
M
Laboratory Sciences Division, ICDDR,B: Centre for Health and Population Research, GPO Box-128, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh. ansar@icddrb.org
Lucas
Marcelino
M
Deen
Jacqueline L
JL
Bhuiyan
N A
NA
Wang
Xuan-Yi
XY
Safa
Ashrafus
A
Sultana
Marzia
M
Chowdhury
A
A
Nair
G Balakrish
GB
Sack
David A
DA
von Seidlein
Lorenz
L
Puri
Mahesh K
MK
Ali
Mohammad
M
Chaignat
Claire-Lise
CL
Clemens
John D
JD
Barreto
Avertino
A
D000328:Adult; D000349:Africa / Q000453:epidemiology; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D006801:Humans; D009073:Mozambique / Q000453:epidemiology; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D011159:Population Surveillance; D012703:Serotyping; D014735:Vibrio Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000635:transmission*; D014736:Vibrio parahaemolyticus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification
D001426:Bacterial Proteins