(Ulcerative Colitis) Chronic colitis after Aeromonas infection

gut.bmj.com/content/gutjnl/30/5/686.full.pdf

SUMMARY

Three patients with an acute colitis in which the only pathogen detected was either Aeromonas hydrophila or A sobria progressed to a chronic phase after the infection had been eliminated by antibiotic treatment in two and had resolved spontaneously in the third. The final diagnosis in each case was ulcerative colitis. Two of the patients have responded to anti-inflammatory medication but one has required panproctocolectomy. The sequence of symptoms and observations in these cases, as well as in others from the literature involving more familiar pathogens, suggests that bacterial infection may contribute to the development of chronic colitis. This supposition could be tested by extending the followup of patients with acute infective colitis in a prospective multi centre trial.

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Older but interesting.

I know many on here describe their beginning of Ulcerative Colitis after what seemed like a bout of food poisoning etc. Others woke up one day and just sorta had Ulcerative Colitis all of a sudden.

Just got a call from my doctor saying that they found Aeromonas bacteria in my stool sample. I'm now starting 2x per day of 500mg ciprofloksacin (for 10 days total) to eradicate Aeromonas. I'm worried due to high dose of antibiotics my microbiome will also be destroyed. I'll take 2x pills of probiotics in between antibiotics and hope that minimises the damage.

Supergut -- Do you have ulcerative colitis?

Interesting article. I know for me my first symptom was just a little blood on the t.p. Then I got extremely constipated, like really bad. The first doctor I saw said it was an anal fissure and told me to take stool softeners. I took them and then all hell broke loose. Second doctor told me i had the "stomach flu." This was after weeks of dealing with this. I knew I did NOT have the stomach flu. Third doctor finally listened to me and ran tests. I'm still grateful to her. I was so sick I thought I might die.

Post-infectious colitis is a thing. Some people develop auto-immune after a serious gut infection. Sometimes it's because they used antibiotics to treat it, and other times the infection itself started things up. I think leaky gut is the obvious connection. The immune system is not supposed to be highly exposed to the bowel environment, but once that happens it can trigger a never ending cascade.

I don't think aeromonas is the direct cause of UC... i.e. if you kill the aeromonas your UC will go away. When I had aeromonas, it complicated my UC but it was not the cause. I ate contaminated sushi and then my flare got kicked into high gear again. Once I took the antibiotics for aeromonas, my flare actually ended. I was so happy.

The one thing I hear starts up the auto-immune cascade for a lot of people is salmonella or e. coli poisoning. I've met so many people over the years who said they were never the same after those infections. I'm not sure what's special about those organisms but when they attack the body they seem to change things permanently.

I found also an interesting paper on Aeromonas. Here is an interesint excerpt:

"Another rare condition oc-casionally associated with Aeromonas intestinal infection is segmental colitis (18, 60, 85, 186). Aeromonas segmental colitis can sometimes mimic or present as ischemic colitis or Crohn’s disease (18, 60, 120). While the condition can affect any por-tion of the colon, it most often is associated with the ascending or transverse sections."

Full paper: https://cmr.asm.org/content/cmr/23/1/35.full.pdf

If you see anything interesting please comment. I think I have segmental colitis, so this is especially interesting to me.