title: Fulminant neonatal sepsis and necrotizing enterocolitis associated with a "nonenteropathogenic" strain of Escherichia coli.
abstract: During 1973 a nonendemic mucoid strain of Escherichia coli entered the nursery of a hospital in Houston. This organism caused septicemia and was associated with a high incidence of necrotizing enterocolitis. The illness was fulminant and characterized by apnea, abdominal distension, and shock. Diarrhea was not a feature of the symptom complex. The epidemic organism was nontypable. Assays for invasiveness, enterotoxin production, and Kl antigen were negative. Surveillance revealed a colonization rate of 14%, an attack rate in colonized infants of 19.5%, and a mortality rate of 87.5%. These data suggest that in certain instances the specific bowel flora may increase the incidence and severity of NEC.
mesh_terms: D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D004761:Enterocolitis, Pseudomembranous / Q000150:complications* / Q000382:microbiology; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000472:pathogenicity; D004927:Escherichia coli Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007235:Infant, Premature, Diseases; D009336:Necrosis / Q000209:etiology; D018805:Sepsis / Q000150:complications* / Q000382:microbiology