[Vibrio vulnificus infections in Denmark during the summer of 1994]. / Vibrio vulnificus-infektioner i Danmark sommeren 1994.

The clinical manifestations and epidemiological data of 11 patients infected with Vibrio vulnificus found in Denmark during the unusually warm summer of 1994 are reported. All patients had been exposed to seawater prior to illness, but none had consumed seafood. Nine patients, including four with bacteraemia, developed skin manifestations of various degrees of severity. One patient died of septic shock despite surgery and treatment with relevant antibiotics. Four patients contracted the disease while fishing. High seawater temperature increases the risk of V. vulnificus infections even in temperate climates such as the Danish. Exposure to seawater, including handling of fresh seafood, during warm periods carries a risk of infection with V. vulnificus.

The incidence of lactose malabsorption in ulcerative colitis.

120 Danish patients with ulcerative colitis, admitted consecutively to a Department of Gastroenterology, were investigated for lactose malabsorption. The prevalence was 9.2 percent, which is not significantly higher than that in a mixed Danish gastroenterological material, There was no difference in distribution according to age and sex, and the incidence was not correlated to the severity of the ulcerative colitis. The possible reasons for the wide variation in the incidence of lactose malabsorption in materials of patients with ulcerative colitis are discussed, and it is concluded that the main cause must be that the materials with the highest incidence include patients of races and ethnic groups in which lactose malabsorption is a common finding.

Defective monocyte function in Legionnaires' disease complicating hairy cell leukaemia.

We describe a case of Legionnaires' disease in a 64-year-old man, in which hairy cell leukaemia was diagnosed after the onset of the infection. Immunological studies revealed a complete suppression of blood monocyte chemotactic and oxidative burst activities. We suggest that in hairy cell leukaemia both monocytopenia and defective functions of monocytes underlie the increased susceptibility to intracellular infections including Legionnaires' disease.

Rapid identification of Capnocytophaga isolated from septicemic patients.

Four Capnocytophaga strains from blood cultures of immunocompromised patients with malignant disease and the type strains of three Capnocytophaga species were examined and compared to strains representing five other genera that are hard to differentiate from Capnocytophaga. With three rapid identification methods, negative catalase and oxidase reactions and positive ONPG assay, Capnocytophaga was easily separated from Eikenella corrodens, Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans, Cardiobacterium hominis, and CDC group DF-2. Haemophilus aphrophilus was excluded by leucine, valine and cystine arylamidase and alpha-glucosidase reactions (API ZYM). Further confirmatory reactions constituted gelatin hydrolysis, haemin requirement, and carbohydrate and esculin breakdown. Although rapid identification of Capnocytophaga to the genus level was feasible, differentiation on a species level proved impossible.

The cultivation and rapid enzyme identification of DF-2.

The investigation of two clinical isolates and two reference strains of DF-2 showed that supplementary cysteine and incubation in a humid atmosphere were important growth-promoting factors for these fastidious, gram-negative bacteria. Broth-base media with phenol red indicator were proven to be satisfactory for carbohydrate fermentation tests. Two four-hour enzyme assays (API ZYM and Rosco Diagnostic Tablets) were used to compare the enzymatic activity of DF-2 with that of 27 species of other non-enterobacterial organisms. The Rosco assay revealed that only the DF-2 strains had a positive alpha-fucosidase reaction, suggesting that this character may provide the means for rapid characterization and identification of these bacteria and also be of value for taxonomic classification. The incongruent results of the API ZYM assay seem to be due to the different substrates of the two assay systems.