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. 2004 Oct;10(10):1797-805.
doi: 10.3201/eid1010.031086.

Escherichia coli and community-acquired gastroenteritis, Melbourne, Australia

Roy M Robins-Browne  1 , Anne-Marie Bordun, Marija Tauschek, Vicki R Bennett-Wood, Jacinta Russell, Frances Oppedisano, Nicole A Lister, Karl A Bettelheim, Christopher K Fairley, Martha I Sinclair, Margaret E Hellard
Affiliations

Escherichia coli and community-acquired gastroenteritis, Melbourne, Australia

Roy M Robins-Browne et al. Emerg Infect Dis. 2004 Oct.

Abstract

As part of a study to determine the effects of water filtration on the incidence of community-acquired gastroenteritis in Melbourne, Australia, we examined fecal samples from patients with gastroenteritis and asymptomatic persons for diarrheagenic strains of Escherichia coli. Atypical strains of enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) were the most frequently identified pathogens of all bacterial, viral, and parasitic agents in patients with gastroenteritis. Moreover, atypical EPEC were more common in patients with gastroenteritis (89 [12.8%] of 696) than in asymptomatic persons (11 [2.3%] of 489, p < 0.0001). Twenty-two random isolates of atypical EPEC that were characterized further showed marked heterogeneity in terms of serotype, genetic subtype, and carriage of virulence-associated determinants. Apart from the surface protein, intimin, no virulence determinant or phenotype was uniformly present in atypical EPEC strains. This study shows that atypical EPEC are an important cause of gastroenteritis in Melbourne.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Seasonal incidence in gastroenteritis in the Melbourne Water Quality Study, 1998. Solid black bars indicate all cases of gastroenteritis as a percentage of the total, with the number of cases indicated above each bar. The frequencies of enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAEC) and enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) are expressed as a percentage of all cases examined each month.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Patterns of adherence of atypical enteropathogenic Escherichia coli strains (arrows) to HEp-2 epithelial cells. A) aggregative adherence, B) localized-like adherence, and C) indeterminate adherence. Magnification x1,000.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Fluorescent actin staining (FAS) assay for attaching-effacing capacity of atypical enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) strains with different patterns of adherence to HEp-2 cells. Fluorescent micrographs of HEp-2 cells (A and B) incubated with strains of atypical EPEC showing localized-like and aggregative adherence, respectively, and then reacted with fluorescein-labelled phalloidin. Note the foci of intense fluorescence (arrows) associated with adherent bacteria, which were also visualized by phase contrast microscopy of the same microscope fields (C and D). Magnification x1,000.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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