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A case of diarrhea and fever in a 14-month-old girl led to the discovery of the gram-negative bacterium Plesiomonas shigelloides in an aquarium at her babysitter's home. Both the baby and the aquarium had been cleaned in the same bathtub, and it was there that the child became infected. Investigators took samples of water from 18 other aquariums, and found P. shigelloides in 22 percent of them. The organism is known to be a pathogen in immunocompromised people, but is can apparently cause diarrhea in otherwise healthy people. The organism is found in the gut of freshwater fish, and this investigation suggests that aquarium water is a source of infection. Illness from P. shigelloides can be shortened by treatment with trimethoprim-sulfametho…