Epidemiological aspects of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli diarrhoea in infants in the Jerusalem area.

BACKGROUND

As most of the clinical laboratories in Israel do not use toxigenicity testing as a routine procedure in cases of Escherichia coli gastroenteritis, current information regarding clinical and epidemiological aspects of infection by enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) is lacking. This survey aimed at retrieving that information by conducting routine enterotoxigenicity tests in a clinical laboratory for patients suspected of E. coli gastroenteritis.

METHODS

The survey population included 415 children < or = 2.5 years old with gastroenteritis, during the second half of 1992. Fresh first stool cultures were checked daily for toxigenicity by ELISA. Thereafter the serotypes, and the colonization factor antigens (CFAs) were evaluated for the ETEC strains.

RESULTS

in 86 of the 415 children (20.7%) we found ETEC. Half these strains would have not been reported as pathogenic without this routine toxigenicity test. CFA were defined in 48 (55.8%) of the ETEC strains. The most common serogroups were O-153, O-6, O-126, and O-128.