title: Toxins and virulence factors of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli associated with strains isolated from indigenous children and international visitors to a rural community in Guatemala.
abstract: Diarrhoea remains a common cause of illness in Guatemala, with children suffering most frequently from the disease. This study directly compared the frequency, enterotoxin, and colonization factor (CF) profiles of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) strains isolated from children living in a rural community in Guatemala and from Western visitors to the same location during the same seasons, using similar detection methodologies. We found that ETEC accounted for 26% of severe cases of diarrhoea in children requiring hospitalization, 15% of diarrhoea in the community, and 29% of travellers' diarrhoea in visitors staying ⩾2 weeks. The toxin and CF patterns of the ETEC strains isolated from both groups differed significantly (P < 0·0005) as determined by χ 2 = 60·39 for CFs and χ 2 = 35 for toxins, while ETEC phenotypes found in Guatemalan children were comparable to those found in children from other areas of the world.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Nutrition in Central America and Panama (INCAP),Guatemala City,Guatemala.
authors.forename: O R
authors.initials: OR
authors.lastname: Torres
authors.affiliation: Institute for Nutrition in Central America and Panama (INCAP),Guatemala City,Guatemala.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: González
authors.affiliation: Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala,Facultad de Ciencias Quimicas y Farmacia,Escuela de Quimica Biologica,Guatemala City,Guatemala.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Lemus
authors.affiliation: Institute for Nutrition in Central America and Panama (INCAP),Guatemala City,Guatemala.
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Pratdesaba
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigaciones en Nutrición y Salud (CIENSA),Guatemala City,Guatemala.
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Matute
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology,University of Gothenburg,Gothenburg,Sweden.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wiklund
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,Baltimore,MD,USA.
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Sack
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,Baltimore,MD,USA.
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Bourgeois
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology,University of Gothenburg,Gothenburg,Sweden.
authors.forename: A-M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Svennerholm
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001427:Bacterial Toxins / Q000378:metabolism*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D054307:Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D004768:Enterotoxins / Q000378:metabolism*; D004927:Escherichia coli Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D006166:Guatemala; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D044382:Population Groups; D012424:Rural Population; D014195:Travel; D037521:Virulence Factors / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D001427:Bacterial Toxins; D004768:Enterotoxins; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D037521:Virulence Factors; C034151:heat stable toxin (E coli); C027538:heat-labile enterotoxin, E coli
keywords: travellers' infection