High prevalence of spirochetosis in cholera patients, Bangladesh.

The microbes that accompany the etiologic agent of cholera, Vibrio cholerae, are only now being defined. In this study, spirochetes from the genus Brachyspira were identified at high titers in more than one third of cholera patients in Bangladesh. Spirochetosis should now be tracked in the setting of cholera outbreaks.

Characteristics of a pandemic clone of O3 : K6 and O4 : K68 Vibrio parahaemolyticus isolated in Beira, Mozambique.

The genetic characteristics of Vibrio parahaemolyticus strains isolated in 2004 and 2005 in Mozambique were assessed in this study to determine whether the pandemic clone of V. parahaemolyticus O3 : K6 and O4 : K68 serotypes has spread to Mozambique. Fifty-eight V.

Transmission of Vibrio cholerae is antagonized by lytic phage and entry into the aquatic environment.

Cholera outbreaks are proposed to propagate in explosive cycles powered by hyperinfectious Vibrio cholerae and quenched by lytic vibriophage. However, studies to elucidate how these factors affect transmission are lacking because the field experiments are almost intractable. One reason for this is that V.

Complexity of rice-water stool from patients with Vibrio cholerae plays a role in the transmission of infectious diarrhea.

At the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, one-half of the rice-water stool samples that were culture-positive for Vibrio cholerae did not contain motile V. cholerae by standard darkfield microscopy and were defined as darkfield-negative (DF(-)). We evaluated the host and microbial factors associated with DF status, as well as the impact of DF status on transmission.

Distribution of virulent and pandemic strains of Vibrio parahaemolyticus in three molluscan shellfish species (Meretrix meretrix, Perna viridis, and Anadara granosa) and their association with foodborne disease in southern Thailand.

Distribution of pandemic strains of Vibrio parahaemolyticus in seafood, particularly in molluscan shellfish, and their serological and molecular relationships to clinical strains were examined from Hat Yai City in southern Thailand. During 2000 to 2002, virulent strains (tdh+ or trh+) were isolated from 13 of 230 molluscan shellfish samples using alkaline peptone water enrichment followed by immunomagnetic separation. The isolates included 12 pandemic strains (tdh+, trh-, group-specific PCR positive) from five Oriental hard clam samples, five green mussel samples, and one bloody clam sample.

Emergence and serovar transition of Vibrio parahaemolyticus pandemic strains isolated during a diarrhea outbreak in Vietnam between 1997 and 1999.

We characterized 523 Vibrio parahaemolyticus strains isolated during a survey of diarrhea patients in Khanh Hoa province, Vietnam between 1997 and 1999. Forty-nine percent of the strains were judged to belong to the pandemic strains that emerged around 1996 and spread to many countries. These strains were positive in the GS-PCR assay and carried the tdh gene.

Prevalence of pandemic thermostable direct hemolysin-producing Vibrio parahaemolyticus O3:K6 in seafood and the coastal environment in Japan.

Although thermostable direct hemolysin (TDH)-producing Vibrio parahaemolyticus has caused many infections in Asian countries, the United States, and other countries, it has been difficult to detect the same pathogen in seafoods and other environmental samples. In this study, we detected and enumerated tdh gene-positive V. parahaemolyticus in Japanese seafoods with a tdh-specific PCR method, a chromogenic agar medium, and a most-probable-number method.