Escherichia Coli in Diarrheal Disease

Transmission is by the fecal-oral route. Pili (fimbriae) allow the bacteria to colonize the ileal mucosa. Cytotonic enterotoxins (encoded on plasmid or bacteriophage DNA) induce watery diarrhea. Plasmid-encoded invasion factors permit invasion of the mucosa, and plasmidor bacteriophage-encoded cytotoxic enterotoxins induce tissue damage; the presence of either of these factors induces a host inflammatory reaction with an influx of lymphocytes and resulting dysentery.