Abstract
A total of 178 strains of V. parahaemolyticus isolated from 13,607 acute diarrheal patients admitted in the Infectious Diseases Hospital, Kolkata has been examined for serovar prevalence, antimicrobial susceptibility and genetic traits with reference to virulence, and clonal lineages. Clinical symptoms and stool characteristics of V. parahaemolyticus infected patients were analyzed for their specific traits. The frequency of pandemic strains was 68%, as confirmed by group-specific PCR (GS-PCR). However, the prevalence of non-pandemic strains was comparatively low (32%). Serovars O3:K6 (19.7%), O1:K25 (18.5%), O1:KUT (11.2%) were more commonly found and other serovars such as O3:KUT (6.7%), O4:K8 (6.7%), and O2:K3 (4.5%) were newly detected in this region. The virulence gene tdh was most frequently detected in GS-PCR positive strains. There was no association between strain features and stool characteristics or clinical outcomes with reference to serovar, pandemic/non-pandemic or virulence profiles. Ampicillin and streptomycin resistance was constant throughout the study period and the MIC of ampicillin among selected strains ranged from 24 to >256 µg/ml. Susceptibility of these strains to ampicillin increased several fold in the presence of carbonyl cyanide-m-chlorophenyldrazone. The newly reported ESBL encoding gene from VPA0477 was found in all the strains, including the susceptible ones for ampicillin. However, none of the strains exhibited the β-lactamase as a phenotypic marker. In the analysis of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), the pandemic strains formed two different clades, with one containing the newly emerged pandemic strains in this region.
Highlights
Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a Gram-negative bacterium, which is normally found in several niches of the coastal environments
Collection of stool specimens Between January 2001 and December in 2012, every fifth diarrheal patient admitted at the Infectious Diseases Hospital (IDH) was enrolled in the active surveillance
Parahaemolyticus strains were isolated from 13,607 diarrheal patients
Summary
Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a Gram-negative bacterium, which is normally found in several niches of the coastal environments. In humans, this pathogen causes three major clinical syndromes: gastroenteritis, wound infections and septicemia [1]. Intestinal infections caused by this pathogen are mainly associated with the consumption of raw or undercooked seafood with clinical symptoms such as moderate to severe diarrhea, abdominal cramps, nausea, vomiting, with or without fever and tenesmus [1]. V. parahaemolyticus infection has been reported all over the world, either as sporadic diarrhea or contaminated food-related outbreaks [2,3]. A recent surveillance conducted during 1996–2010 in the US revealed an increase in the infection rate of V. parahaemolyticus [7]
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