A Review of Pathogenic Vibrio Infections for Clinicians

Vibrio infections are becoming increasingly common in the United States. Pathogenic vibrios cause 3 major syndromes of clinical illness: gastroenteritis, wound infections, and septicemia. Many cases of Vibrio-associated gastroenteritis are substantially underrecognized because vibrios are not readily identified in routine stool cultures. Epidemiologic data suggest that the majority of these infections are foodborne and associated with consumption of raw or undercooked shellfish. In persons who develop acute gastroenteritis after eating raw or undercooked shellfish, clinicians should order testing of a stool specimen using a selective medium for vibrios. Clinicians should obtain a travel history when evaluating a patient with acute watery diarrhea, and should consider cholera in the differential diagnosis when a patient has returned from a trip to a country where cholera is known or suspected to be present.