Acute Enteritis Due to Related Vibrio: First Positive Stool Cultures

Abstract

Strains of the related vibrio were isolated from two patients with acute enteritis. The vibrios were isolated from blood and stool of one patient and from the stool of the other. The isolation technique consists of diluting the stools in nutrient broth, letting them settle for 1 hr, centrifuging the supernatant, and passing the surface liquid through a 0.65-μ Millipore filter. This filtrate (0.3 ml) is plated on a blood-thioglycolate-agar medium containing 25 international units of bacitracin, 10 international units of polymyxin B sulfate, 0.005 mg of novobiocin, and 0.05 mg of actidione per ml. Colonies are well developed after incubation for three days at 37 C in an atmosphere from which two-thirds of the volume of air has been replaced by a mixture of 95% nitrogen and 5% carbon dioxide. The results suggest that in all cases of diarrhea where standard coprocultures remain negative, stools should be checked for the presence of vibrio.