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Review
. 2015 Aug;21(8):729-34.
doi: 10.1016/j.cmi.2015.01.015. Epub 2015 Jan 28.

Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli: foe or innocent bystander?

J Hu  1 , A G Torres  2
Affiliations
Review

Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli: foe or innocent bystander?

J Hu et al. Clin Microbiol Infect. 2015 Aug.

Abstract

Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) remain one the most important pathogens infecting children and they are one of the main causes of persistent diarrhoea worldwide. Historically, typical EPEC (tEPEC), defined as those isolates with the attaching and effacement (A/E) genotype (eae(+)), which possess bfpA(+) and lack the stx(-) genes are found strongly associated with diarrhoeal cases. However, occurrence of atypical EPEC (aEPEC; eae(+)bfpA(-)stx(-)) in diarrhoeal and asymptomatic hosts has made investigators question the role of these pathogens in human disease. Current epidemiological data are helping to answer the question of whether EPEC is mainly a foe or an innocent bystander during infection.

Keywords: Asymptomatic pathogenic Escherichia coli; atypical EPEC; diarrhoea; enteropathogenic Escherichia coli; epidemiology.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Distribution of recent worldwide epidemiological studies of enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC). The arrows represent the increase or decrease of tEPEC and aEPEC cases per geographical region. The blue stars depicted those countries with increase EPEC prevalence reported in recent years. The red triangles represent countries with recent reported aEPEC outbreaks. aEPEC, atypical EPEC; tEPEC, typical EPEC.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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