CHOLERA, NON-O1 - NETHERLANDS ex SPAIN (CANARY ISLANDS)

Date: Fri 31 Jul 2009
From: Wouter Rozemeijer <w.rozemeijer@vumc.nl> [edited]


On [Sat 18 Jul 2009], a 53-year-old Dutch man, recently diagnosed
with scleroderma, complicated by delayed duodenal emptying, was
admitted to a hospital in the Netherlands because of profuse diarrhea
for one day. He had been treated with prednisolone 15 mg and
esomeprazole 80 mg a day. He was severely dehydrated and had lost
more than 10 percent of his weight. Laboratory tests showed an
acidosis and hypokalemia. He had returned 5 days earlier from a
holiday in Fuerteventura, Canary Islands, Spain. He had not swum in
natural water nor eaten seafood during his stay. No other members of
his family had symptoms of gastroenteritis.

His feces appeared as rice water and a stool culture was positive for
_Vibrio cholerae_, non-O1 serotype (further typing in progress).
After treatment with oral doxycycline symptoms resolved.