ENTEROTOXIGENIC ESCHERICHIA-COLI ASSOCIATED DIARRHEA AMONG INFANTS AGED LESS-THAN 6 MONTHS IN CALCUTTA, INDIA

The role of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) as etiologic agent s of diarrhoea in infants aged less than six months was assessed in a hospital based study in Calcutta, India. Of the 218 cases examined, ET EC strains were isolated from 26 (11,9%) cases. Among these, in 17 cas es ETEC was the sole infecting pathogen (p = 0.0085). Of the 26 isolat es (each isolate representing a case.), 24 were distributed among seve n different O:K:H serotypes and two different colonization factor anti gens (CFAs) I and II. Two of the remaining isolation were untypable, n on-haemagglutinating, and were nonhydrophobic as measured by the salt aggregation test (SAT). Of the 26 ETEC strains detected, 15 (57.7%) pr oduced heat-labile toxin(LT) only, 8 (30.8%) liberated heat-stable tox in (ST) only, and the remaining 3 (11.5%) produced both LT and ST. No ETEC strain was isolated from the 102 age-matched controls included in this study. All the ETEC isolates were multiple drug resistant. Tile study showed that the diarrhoea due to ETEC was of brief duration, mos tly within the range of 3 to 7 days.