Independent prognostic factors for fatality in patients with invasive Vibrio cholerae non-O1 infections

To identify independent prognostic factors for fatality, 73 patients with a total of 75 episodes of invasive Vibrio cholerae non -O1 infections treated from July 1998 through October 2001 at 2 medical centers were retrospectively studied. The demographic, laboratory, and clinical information of these patients were collected and analyzed. The overall mortality rate was 36%. Multivariate analysis revealed that severe liver cirrhosis (p=0.003; odds ratio [OR], 14.12, with 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.49-79.91), malignancy (p=0.034; OR, 3.9, with 95% CI 1.11-13. 7), and steroid use (p=0.011; OR, 12.37, with 95% CI 1.79-85.49) were independent risk factors for fatality. These findings suggest that patients at high risk of fatality should be hospitalized and aggressively treated when V. cholerae non-O1 infections develop, and that public education on how to avoid exposure to V. cholerae non-O1 is important for the high-risk population.