Descrizione
Following the report of the isolation of Vibio cholerae from blood culture, from a patient hospitalized at the V. Fazzi Hospital in Lecce, the Prevention Department of the ASL took samples of some food matrices and well water available to the patient. The analyses conducted at the Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute of Puglia and Basilicata had a negative outcome.
The strain isolated from the clinical case was subjected to genomic sequencing at the Laboratories of the Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute of Puglia and Basilicata to verify its possible pathogenicity. Although it belongs to the species Vibrio cholerae, quite common in brackish aquatic environments but normally non-pathogenic, it was possible to exclude the presence of the genes responsible for toxin production or belonging to the pathogenic serotypes of the species.
We recall that the confirmation of the diagnosis of cholera, according to the indications of the case definition established by ECDC in 2018, occurs in the case of a 'person presenting diarrhoea or vomiting and from whom a strain of Vibrio cholerae has been isolated that presents the O1 or O139 antigens and the gene encoding the enterotoxin or the enterotoxin itself'.