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

A 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 diarrhea. Vibrio cholerae O1 was isolated from 545 (10.0%) and V. cholerae non-O1 from 183 samples (3.4%), respectively. Patients positive for V. parahaemolyticus were mostly adults between 20 and 40 years of age, with males constituting 62%. A majority (65%) of these patients demonstrated watery diarrhea 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-febrile (90%). The highest isolation rate (9.6%) of V. parahaemolyticus was found during the dry season (June, July) and the lowest (4.5%) in the rainy season (December, January, February). All of the V. parahaemolyticus isolates were hemolytic on human blood agar (positive Kanagawa) but none was urease positive. Disk diffusion antibiotic susceptibility tests performed on the 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, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, gentamicin, and ciprofloxacin.