Aeromonas in adult diarrhea: an enteropathogen or an innocent bystander?

This is a study from a district hospital in Israel serving a population of 250,000. During 1986-1987, 1,005 stool specimens were cultured from 932 adult inpatients with acute diarrhea. Seventeen yielded Aeromonas species. Of the 12 strains phenotyped, 10 qualified as enteropathogenic. Five hundred stool specimens from asymptomatic control subjects, inhabitants of the same region, were negative for Aeromonas. The finding of Aeromonas as the apparently sole pathogen in acute adult diarrhea in a geographical area with a negligible asymptomatic carriage rate lends support to the possibility that Aeromonas is an enteropathogen in adults.