Hafnia alvei in stool specimens from patients with diarrhea and healthy controls

Abstract

We found an epidemiological association of Hafnia alvei with diarrhea, because the organism was isolated from 12 of 77 (16%) adult Finnish tourists to Morocco who developed diarrhea and from 0 of 321 tourists without diarrhea (P < 0.001). From another group of 112 adult Finnish diarrheal patients, only 2 (2%) yielded H. alvei. In contrast to some Bangladeshi strains of H. alvei, the Finnish strains were negative for the attachment-effacement lesion by an in vitro fluorescent actin staining test and also did not show homology to the Escherichia coli attachment-effacement gene (eaeA) by PCR. These results suggest that a mechanism or mechanisms other than the attachment-effacement lesion may also be involved in the association of H. alvei with diarrhea.