Prevalence of diarrhoeagenic Escherichia coli in children from León, Nicaragua.
Diarrhoeal disease is a public health problem worldwide, mostly affecting children in developing countries. In Nicaragua, diarrhoea is the second greatest cause of infant mortality. During the period March 2005 to September 2006, a total of 526 faecal samples from children aged 0-60 months (381 with and 145 without diarrhoea) from León, Nicaragua, were studied. In order to detect five different diarrhoeagenic Escherichia coli pathotypes simultaneously [enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC), enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC), enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC), enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) and enteroinvasive E. coli (EIEC)], a mixture of eight primer pairs was used in a single PCR. At least one diarrhoeagenic E. coli pathotype was detected in 205 samples (53.8%) of the diarrhoea group and in 77 samples (53.1%) in the non-diarrhoea group. ETEC was detected significantly more often in children with diarrhoea (20.5%) than in children without diarrhoea (8.3%) (P=0.001). Atypical EPEC, EIEC and EAEC were detected with slightly lower frequencies in children with (16.0, 0.8 and 27.8%, respectively) than in children without (20.7, 1.4 and 33.1%, respectively) diarrhoea. EHEC was only detected in children with diarrhoea (2.1%). In conclusion, ETEC continues to be an important agent associated with diarrhoea in children from León, Nicaragua. Although not very frequent, the only findings that were 100% associated with diarrhoea were ETEC estA (4.7%) and EHEC (2.1%). Nevertheless, EAEC and EPEC were also frequent pathotypes in the population under study. In children with severe diarrhoea, more than half had EAEC, ETEC or EPEC, and EAEC was the most prevalent pathotype.
Division of Clinical Microbiology, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska University Hospital, S-141 86 Stockholm, Sweden.|Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN), León, Nicaragua.
Samuel
S
Vilchez
Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology (MTC), Karolinska Institutet, S-171 77 Solna, Stockholm, Sweden.|Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN), León, Nicaragua.
Daniel
D
Reyes
Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology (MTC), Karolinska Institutet, S-171 77 Solna, Stockholm, Sweden.|Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN), León, Nicaragua.
Margarita
M
Paniagua
Division of Molecular Virology, Medical Faculty, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.|Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology (MTC), Karolinska Institutet, S-171 77 Solna, Stockholm, Sweden.|Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN), León, Nicaragua.
Filemon
F
Bucardo
Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology (MTC), Karolinska Institutet, S-171 77 Solna, Stockholm, Sweden.
Roland
R
Möllby
Division of Clinical Microbiology, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska University Hospital, S-141 86 Stockholm, Sweden.
Andrej
A
Weintraub
D002675:Child, Preschool; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology*; D054324:Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D054307:Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D004927:Escherichia coli Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D009527:Nicaragua / Q000453:epidemiology; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015995:Prevalence; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
D004269:DNA, Bacterial