Clinical and epidemiological features of sporadic infections with Vibrio fluvialis in Florida, USA.

The clinical and epidemiological features of sporadic illness were investigated in 12 persons from whom Vibrio fluvialis was recovered and who were reported to the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services between 1982 and 1988. All 12 patients lived in Florida and denied any recent travel out of the state prior to the onset of their illness. V. fluvialis was recovered from the stools of 10 patients who presented clinically with gastroenteritis, from a wound in one patient, and from a caecostomy drainage specimen in one patient. Eight of the 10 patients with gastroenteritis reported eating seafood during the week before becoming ill: raw oysters (five patients), shrimp (two patients), and cooked fish (one patient). This represents the largest clinical series of V. fluvialis cases described in the United States.