Screening for enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) in paediatric patients with diarrhoea and controls using pooled antisera.
A total of 421 strains Escherichia coli isolated between 1992 and 1993 from paediatric patients with diarrhoea (n = 345) and controls (n = 76) less than 2 years of age at Ethio-Swedish Children's Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia were screened for enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) on the basis of slide agglutination tests using E. coli polyvalent and pooled antisera I, II and III. The individual pools of antisera comprised the following serotypes: Pool I (O26:B6, O55:B5, O111:B4, O127:B8), Pool II (O86:B7, 0119:B14, 0125:B15, 0126:B16, 0128:B12) and Pool III (025:11L, Oll:74L, 078, 0114, 0124). Of the 345 E. coli isolates from patients 72 (20.8%) and of the 76 E. coli isolates from controls 13 (7.1%) were positive for EPEC. Of the 345 E. coli strains, 21 (6.1%) and of the 76 E. coli strains, 5 (6.6%) were positive for more than one pool of antisera. This study shows that the most common serotypes among EPEC from Ethiopia correspond to the most frequent serotypes from other parts of the world. A limited number of pooled antisera were sufficient to screen the majority of the EPEC isolates.
Asrat
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Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box 9086, Addis Ababa.
D000372:Agglutination Tests / Q000379:methods*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003968:Diarrhea, Infantile / Q000382:microbiology*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000145:classification*; D004927:Escherichia coli Infections / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology*; D005002:Ethiopia / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D012703:Serotyping / Q000379:methods*