Escherichia coli diarrhea

Abstract

During the 1940s and 1950s, a series of outbreaks of diarrhea in hospital newborn nurseries were reported in which the etiologic agent appeared to be Escherichia coli identified by serotype. These strains became known as enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC). Since the Second International Symposium on EPEC in 1995, EPEC strains have been renamed typical EPEC (tEPEC) to distinguish them from another not well characterized E. coli strains known as atypical EPEC (aEPEC).(1) In this chapter we will focus on tEPEC although some general characteristics of aEPEC will be also mentioned. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2009.