Question

A Hispanic patient presents in the emergency room with a fever and is passing blood and mucus in his stools. The patient is in considerable distress. His nephew tells the physician that his uncle has only been in the United States for 3 days and has come on vacation from Puerto Rico. Stool samples reveal a non-motile, non-encapsulated, non-lactose fermenter, gram-negative bacillus. Proctoscopy determines that the organism has invaded the large intestine.

What is the patient infected with? Explain your reasoning.

How is he likely to have contracted it?

Name another bacterium that causes bloody diarrhea.

Answer 1

Ans-1-patient is infected with the shigella species. As mentioned in the question Stool samples reveal a non-motile, non-encapsulated, non-lactose fermenter, gram-negative bacillus and his symptoms point to shigella, salmonella and ecoli and as we know that E. coli is non lactose fermenter and salmonella are motile so that it would be shigella.

Ans-2-shigella transmitted from infected person to contaminate water or food and transmitted by the fecal-oral route,

Ans-3- E.coli also cause causes bloody diarrhea.