Enteropathogenic and enteroaggregative E. coli in stools of children with acute gastroenteritis in Davidson County, Tennessee

Abstract This prospective acute gastroenteritis (AGE) surveillance was conducted in the inpatient and emergency room settings at a referral pediatric hospital to determine the prevalence of diarrheagenic Escherichia coli (DEC) in children E. coli . A total of 12 (5.8%) out of 206 stool specimens from children with AGE were positive for a DEC. Eight (67%) out of these 12 were positive for enteropathogenic E. coli , and the remaining 4 were positive for enteroaggregative E. coli . DEC clinical isolates clustered with known E. coli enteropathogens according to multilocus sequencing typing.