Prevalence And Characteristics Of Aeromonas Species And Plesiomonas Shigelloides In Lagos

ABSTRACT

This study was carried out in two phases. The first phase involved the determination of the prevalence of Aeromonas species and Plesiomonas shigelloides in patients, with and without diarrhoea, reporting at the enteric laboratory of the Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba, Lagos; over a 12-month period of October 1986 through September 1987. In the second phase the characteristics of isolates thus obtained were examined.

During the first phase of the study, a total of 2,350 faecal specimens from patients with diarrhea were screened for the presence of Aeromonas sp or P. Shigelloides. Of this number, 53 (2.26%) were positive for Aeromonas sp. While 16 (0.63%) yielded P. shigelloides. On the other hand, of a total of 500 Focal species from patients without diarrhea (controls) collected over the same period of time, only 2 (0.4%) were positive for Aeromonas sp, while none of the specimens yielded P. shinelloide. In which case, both organisms were more frequently isolated fron diarrhoeal than from control specimens. As a matter of fact, the difference in the isolation rates of Aeromonas sp from patients with diarrhoea and controls was statistically significant (p