Escherichia colidiarrhoea

Abstract

Ever since Escherich (1885) first isolated the organism now known asEscherichia colifrom the stools of infants, medical microbiologists have been faced with the problem of distinguishing between those strains capable of causing diarrhoea and those that are harmless gut commensals. Epidemiological investigations were greatly facilitated by the description by Kauffmann (1947) of a serotyping scheme forE. coli, and Taylor (1961) later reported that 17 0 serogroups ofE. colihad been implicated as possible causes of epidemic infantile enteritis. These infantile enteropathogenicE. coli(EPEC), having been discovered by epidemiological studies using serotyping, belonged by definition to a restricted range of serogroups. More recently it was shown that otherE. colistrains may produce enterotoxins, and these enterotoxigenicE. coli(ETEC) usually belong to particular serogroups which are different from those associated with EPEC.E. colistrains belonging to a third range of serogroups may cause an illness resembling shigella dysentery, and these may be regarded as entero-invasiveE. coli(EIEC).E. colistrains that cause diarrhoea may therefore be considered as three groups, as follows.

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli O153?H45 from an outbreak of diarrhoea in Spain

“…This limited investigation is published for several reasons: first, because so few reports about the prevalence of ETEC strains in European countries have been published [7,3,10,9,4,12,2]; secondly, to stress the fact that ETEC strains may cause institutional outbreaks in developed countries; and thirdly, to point out the present remarkable geographical restriction in the occurrence of the O153:H45 ST + clone. Since 1972, the Copenhagen laboratory has received 112 Escbericbia coli strains belonging to O group O153 from a large number of laboratories in many countries (see "Materials and methods").…”

“…The role of enterotoxigenic Escbericbia coli (ETEC) as a cause of diarrhoea in developing countries and as the cause of travellers' diarrhoea in persons visiting such countries is well established [7].…”

“…In developed countries, however, it seems that ETEC strains are only infrequently involved in diarrhoeal disease [7,12]. A limited number of institutional outbreaks have been recorded (a).…”

“…A limited number of institutional outbreaks have been recorded (a). However, only few reports on the prevalence of human ETEC in European countries have been published [7,3,10,9,4,2].…”

The effects of accelerated electrons on Escherichia Coli enterobacteria cytotoxic activity

“…The enterotoxic stains of Escherichia coli (ETEC) that were found to be the ethiologic agents in children [2] and adults [3] diarrhoea disease, travellers' diarrhoea [4] and new born animals' colibacillosis [5], were used. ETEC strains are characterised by noteworthy heterogeneity of lipopolysaccharides (LPS), antigens-0, flagels (antigens-H), thermally unstable and stable toxins (LT and ST) and antigenic colony factors (CFA) [6][7][8][9][10][11].…”