1966 Volume 39 Issue 12 Pages 433-441
The purpose of this paper is to emphasize the new antigenic type of Aeromonas shigelloides and to summarize the practical significance of this type of poisoning.
The study includes 53 patients with food poisoning which broke out in a community (households 83, populations 355) of Wakayama Prefecture in July 1965 and is thought to be caused reponsible by the contaminated salt mackerel sold by a pedlar.
The incidence of children, less than 10 years of age, was high and found in about 70% of all patients.
1) Symptoms were characterized by mild to severe diarrhea, abdominal pain and fever.
Common symptoms and signs which appeared are: Diarrhea: Mucous or mucopus stool was found in about a half of the cases of food poisoning but no blood was observed. Diarrheal stools, more than 5 times a day, were found in 36%. Fever-The fever ranged from 37 to 40 C in 61% and more than 39 C in 14%.
2) The organism was Aeromonas shigelloides observed first by Ewing et al. (1961) and characterized by mobile short rod, Gram-negative, non-spore-forming fermenting glucose, acid-producing from lactose, maltose, inositol and salicin, non-gas-producing, arginine dihydrolase-producing, lysine and ornithine decargoxylase-producing, non-gelatin-liquefying, tartrate, urea and citrate-utilizing and non acetylmethylcarbinol-producing organism.
3) The cultures of ten strains obtained from the patients were agglutinated with the antiserum of Shigella dysenteriae 7. It was found that the antigen of these organisms was common to Shigella. dysenteriae 7 and Escherichia coli 0-121 by the cross absorption test.
