Vibrios among patients of good socioeconomic conditions during the cholera epidemic in Recife, Brazil.

Between March and July, 1992, we screened for Vibrio all fecal samples submitted for bacteriologic diagnosis at a private clinical laboratory in Recife. Of 1435 cultures examined only 1 (0.07%) was positive for V. cholerae 01, biovar Eltor, serovar Inaba, but 17 (1.2%) yielded non-cholera Vibrio (V. cholerae non-01; V. fluvialis; V. furnissii, V. parahaemolyticus and Vibrio spp). Thus, V. cholerae 01, differently of other enteropathogenic vibrios, spared individuals of good socioeconomic conditions even during the cholera epidemic, which made hundreds of victims in the neighboring slums.