CHRONIC DIARRHEA DUE TO A SINGLE STRAIN OF AEROMONAS-CAVIAE

Over a period of 17 months, Aeromonas caviae was cultured 15 times as the sole enteropathogen from the feces of a man who had developed chro nic diarrhea after traveling to Turkey. Determination of rRNA gene res triction patterns confirmed that the seven isolates of Aeromonas cavia e studied were identical (hybridization group [HG]4), After therapy wi th ciprofloxacin for four weeks, the patient was culture negative for the original isolate, and six months later a novel strain of Aeromonas media with a different ribo-pattern (HG 5A) was isolated from the fec es of the patient. The patient responded again, both clinically and ba cteriologically, to a four-week course of ciprofloxacin and has remain ed asymptomatic since then.