Infantile diarrhea produced by heat-stable enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli.
Between December, 1974, and August 1975, intestinal illness occurred in 55 of 205 infants admitted to the special-care nurseries of a large children's hospital. Escherichia coli serotype 078:K80:H12, which produced a heat-stable enterotoxin, was isolated from 18 of 25 symptomatic infants as compared with 14 of 55 asymptomatic infants (P less than 0.001). Colistin administered prophylactically to 24 culture-negative asymptomatic infants did not prevent colonization in 10, whereas colonization did occur in 22 of 56 not receiving colistin (P = 1.0). This outbreak provides laboratory and epidemiologic evidence that heat-stable enterotoxigenic Esch. coli is pathogenic in human beings and produces infantile diarrhea.
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002701:Chloramphenicol / Q000494:pharmacology; D003091:Colistin / Q000627:therapeutic use; D003968:Diarrhea, Infantile / Q000209:etiology*; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000453:epidemiology; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D004768:Enterotoxins / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000145:classification / Q000187:drug effects / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D004927:Escherichia coli Infections / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology; D006358:Hot Temperature; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D009724:Nurseries, Infant
D004768:Enterotoxins; D002701:Chloramphenicol; D003091:Colistin