Vibrio parahaemolyticus associated with Cholera-like diarrhea among patients in North Jakarta, Indonesia

diarrhea study was conducted in North Jakarta, Indonesia from December 1996 through December 1997. Vibrio parahaemolyticus was isolated from 333 (6.1% ) of 5442 rectal swab samples collected from patients with cholera-like dia rrhea. Vibrio cholerae O1 was isolated from 545 (10.0%) and V. cholerae non -Ol from 183 samples (3.4%), respectively. Patients positive for V, parahae molyticus were mostly adults between 20 and 40 years of age, with males con stituting 62%. A majority (65%) of these patients demonstrated watery diarr hea with a frequency of fewer than 10 episodes per 24 hour. A large number of the patients had abdominal pain (83%) and vomiting (76%) and were non-fe brile (90%). The highest isolation rate (9.6%) of V. parahaemolyticus was f ound during the dry season (June, July) and the lowest (4.5%) in the rainy season (December, January, February). All of the V. parahaemolyticus isolat es were hemolytic on human blood agar (positive Kanagawa) but none was urea se positive. Disk diffusion antibiotic susceptibility tests performed on th e isolates demonstrated resistance to ampicillin (98%), cephalothin (24%), kanamycin (15%), colistin (97%), neomycin (2%) and ceftriaxone (0.3%). All isolates (100%) were sensitive to chloramphenicol, tetracycline, trimethopr im-sulfamethoxazole, gentamicin, and ciprofloxacin. (C) 2001 Elsevier Scien ce Inc. All rights reserved.