Korean J Clin Pathol.  2002 Feb;22(1):27-30.

Recent Epidemic Emergence of Vibrio parahaemolyticus O3:K6 in Korea

• Keum DG
• Kang JO
• Choi TY

Abstract

BACKGROUND: V. parahaemolyticus O3:K6 strains responsible for the increase in the number of cases of diarrhea in Southeast Asia since 1995. We performed serotyping of V. parahaemolyticus isolated from different geographic areas in Korea since 1998.
METHODS
A total of 45 V. parahaemolyticus strains were isolated from clinical specimens of pa-tients with diarrhea in different geographic areas of Seoul (Hanyang University Hospital, 16 cases), Incheon (Gachon Medical Center, 27 cases) and Gwangju (Chonnam University Hospital, 2 cases) from 1998 to 2000 in Korea. Serovar O3:K6 of V. parahaemolyticus was determined by slide and tube agglutination tests with specific antisera (Seiken, Japan).
RESULTS
The twenty-eight (62%) of 45 samples were positive to specific antisera of V. parahae-molyticus O3:K6. The O3:K6 strains were detected 11/16 (69%) in Seoul, 15/27 (56%) in Incheon, and 2/2 (100%) in Gwangju. V. parahaemolyticus O3:K6 was detected 11/16 (69%) in 1998, 12/18 (67%) in 1999, and 5/11 (45%) in 2000, respectively.
CONCLUSIONS
We report the epidemic emergence of V. parahaemolyticus O3:K6 in Korea, since 1998.

Keyword

Vibrio parahaemolyticus; O3:K6; Serotype

MeSH Terms

Agglutination Tests
Asia, Southeastern
Diarrhea
Gwangju
Immune Sera
Incheon
Korea*
Seoul
Serotyping
Vibrio parahaemolyticus*
Vibrio*
Immune Sera