[Cases of gastroenteritis associated to Vibrio cholerae no 01 in Oran, Salta]

Forty-one sporadic cases of non-O group 1 Vibrio cholerae gastroenteritis were detected in Orán, Salta, between February 1992 and February 1995. The frequency of isolation was 0.9% of the diarrhea cases. Out of 41 patients, 21 (51.2%) were older than 15 years and 25 (60.9%) were male. All the patients had diarrhea, 24 (58.5%) had watery stools and 6 (14.6%) cholera-like diarrhea; 10 (24.4%) presented vomiting and 12 (29%) mild dehydration. Six malnourished children who suffered from diarrhea with moderate dehydration for more than a week, were hospitalized. V. cholerae non O1 and Shigella flexneri were isolated from one patient, during the first outbreak and V. cholerae non O1 and Salmonella IV 50:b:- were recovered simultaneously from another patient during the fourth outbreak. A 72 year old woman died during the second cholera outbreak. The symptoms were: watery diarrhea, vomiting, fever and mild dehydration. A strain of V. cholerae O5, that did not produce cholera toxin, heat-stable enterotoxin, Kanagawa-like hemolysin or verocitotoxin was detected. It was positive for El Tor hemolysin and D-mannose and L-fucose resistant cells-associated hemagglutinins. Among the 41 isolates studied, all were oxidase and indole positive, fermented glucose, saccharose and mannitol. They were all motile, produced lysine and ornithine decarboxylases but not arginine dihydrolase or hydrogen sulfide. They were sensitive to O129 vibriostatic compound. None of them belonged to O1 or O139 serogroup and they did not produce cholera troxin. Among the V. cholerae non O1 strains isolated, 9.5% were resistant to ampicillin and 4.9% to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole. Active surveillance had shown that V. cholerae non-O1 is not an important agent of diarrhea in Orán, Salta.