[Report about two cases of gastroenteritis caused by Plesiomonas shigelloides (author's transl)]

Plesiomonas shigelloides was isolated out of the feces from two patients. In one case the patient (she just arrived back from Kenia) had cholera-like symptoms. In the other case the nonspecific symptoms led to an appendectomy. In this case the association of the clinical symptoms with the bacteriological results is doubtful. Plesiomonas shigelloides belongs to the genus III. (Plesiomonas) of the family II. (Vibrionaceae) Part 8. (gram-negative facultatively anaerobic rods). Some of Plesiomonas shigelloides strains share a common O antigen with Sh. sonnei. Literature about infectious gastroenteritis in humans due to Plesiomonas shigelloides is very spare. This is the reason why the pathogenicity of this bacterium on humans is not comonly known. After on year of stool-research, with a relative small number of specimens, we found Plesiomonas shigelloides twice. This is the reason why we could assume that this bacterium is more often in feces than we thought till now.