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 w ere screened for enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) on the basis of slide aggl utination tests using E. coli polyvalent and pooled antisera I, II and III. The individual pools of antisera comprised the following serotypes: Pool I (Q26:B6, O55:B5, O111:B4, O127:B8), Pool II (O86:B7, O119:B14, O125:B15, O 126:B16, O128: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 isolat es from controls 13 (7.1%) were positive for EPEC. Of the 345 E. coli strai ns, 21 (6.1%) and of the 76 E. coli strains, 5 (6.6%) were positive for mor e than one pool of antisera. This study shows that the most common serotype s among EPEC from Ethiopia correspond to the most frequent serotypes from o ther parts of the world. A limited number of pooled antisera were sufficien t to screen the majority of the EPEC isolates.