Serious infections with Edwardsiella tarda. A case report and review of the literature.

Edwardsiella tarda, a member of the family Enterobacteriaceae, has recently become recognized as pathogenic, especially in patients with an underlying illness. In the present report, a patient had sickle cell hemoglobinopathy and E tarda bacteremia. Other cases of serious infection with Edwardsiella are reported in the literature. Edwardsiella infection may present as bacteremia, enteric fever, gastroenteritis, localized infection, and an asymptomatic carrier state. On the basis of this review, bacteremia with E tarda often has been associated with septic shock and has a high mortality, but this may be related to the usual presence of a serious underlying illness in these patients.