Yersinia enterocolitica has been known to be an important enteric pathogen especially in Scandinavian countries and Canada. In Korea, the authors reported the first case of Y. pseudotuberculosis septicemia in 1979. In 1980, three isolates of Y enterocolitica were obtained from 3 adult patients withh enteritis. besides the already reported one in a 5-month-old child, during March to June 1980.
Difficulty in the isolation was experienced: i.e., the organism was isolated only from the SS primary isolation plate in one case and in the other two cases only from the SS plat- inoculated with overnight culture of selenite broth.
The isolates showed typical cultural and biochemical characteristics except for the nonmotility even at room temperature. Two isolates were.indole negative possibly belonging to Wauter´s biotype 3 and the other one was indole positive belonging to biotype 2. One patient was tested for the serum agglutinin. titer on the 8th hospital day and it was found to be 1 - 128.
All of the isolates were susceptible to chloramphenicci. colistin, gentamicin. kanamycin, tetracyclne, and tobramycin by the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method. All o the infections were controlled by ampicillin, amoxicillin, amikacin, or gentamicin treatment.
It is considered urgent to broaden our knowledge on yersiniosis in Korea not only by isolating, serotyping and biotyping of the organism, but also by surveying serum agglutinin titer of enteritis patients and normal individuals.
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