Simultaneous Isolation of Vibrio vulnificus and Vibrio parahaemolyticus in Blood from a Liver Cirrhosis Patient: Importance of Detection and Identification of Both Species / 대한진단검사의학회지

ABSTRACT

A 56-year-old woman with underlying liver cirrhosis was hospitalized with chief complaints of fever, which developed after eating raw fish on the previous day. On physical examination, she showed hypotension. Vibrio vulnificus and Vibrio parahaemolyticus strains were simultaneously isolated from blood cultures, and the patient recovered after treatment with antibiotics including cefotaxime. To our knowledge, simultaneous isolation of both V. vulnificus and V. parahaemolyticus from the blood has never been documented before in Korea or any other countries. When blood cultures from a patient with underlying disease such as liver disease show growth of gram-negative bacilli in the summer months, microbiologists in Korea, where Vibrio infection is prevalent, should be aware of the possibility that V. vulnificus and other Vibrio spp. can be isolated simultaneously. An accurate identification of all isolates is important, because antimicrobial susceptibility patterns, severity and prognosis of the infection are different significantly depending on species.