A One Health Insight into Noncholeric Vibrio spp. Infections in a French Atlantic Coastal Region

Data on "non-choleric Vibrios spp." (NCV) infections remain scarce, despite their classification as emerging pathogens. Indeed, their incidence is increasing with global warming, as observed in North Atlantic countries. Furthermore, their prognosis is complicated by high morbidity and mortality rates.

We investigated the epidemiology of NCV infections in hospital, community, and environmental settings along the French West coastline. A retrospective multicenter study was carried out in 10 hospitals and 3 community laboratories between 2017 and 2020 in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region to collect clinical data on all documented Vibrio infections, which were later compared to data collected on environmental Vibrio strains recovered concomitantly from the same coastal region.

A total of 223 cases were documented, suggesting that NCV infections are widely underestimated in France, as the number of patients included in this study in a single region exceeded the total cases reported by the French National Reference Center for Vibrio species during the same period (202). Additionally, gastroenteritis caused by NCVs increased from .13% in 2017 to 0.39% in 2019. The most at-risk patients were immunocompromised or those with cancer. The clinical symptoms were mainly gastroenteritis or skin infections. The treatments prescribed did not align always with current recommendations and susceptibility to tetracycline, the recommended treatment, was never assessed. Antibiotic resistance seemed more common in environmental strains than in clinical strains, notably to aminoglycosides.

NCV infection incidence has been increasing in this Atlantic coastal region of France, and the high rates of antibiotic resistance among environmental strains are worrying.