Research in Medicine

Background: Escherichia coli, the most frequent cause of bacterial infectious diarrhea, is responsible for an enormous burden of morbidity, mortality, and health care costs. Paradoxically, as the predominant facultative member of the normal human colonic flora, E.coli is present in most individuals as a harmless commensal. Cloning techniques are very laborious and expensive. Therefore, today in developing countries, including Iran, old and simple stereotyping by latex agglutination kit and various PCR methods are preferred. According to the results of previous studies and the importance of proper knowledge about the epidemiology of diarrheal pathogens, especially E. coli in most developing countries, the aim of this study was to identify Escherishia coli pathotypes using polyclonal antisera and evaluation of their antibiotic resistance in cases of diarrhea in selected hospitals of Tabriz city.
Materials and methods: A total of 150 E.coli strains were collected from cases of diarrhea in selected hospitals of Tabriz city. After confirmatory tests, E.coli pathotypes were identified using polyvalent antisera. The antibiogram profiles were performed by Kirby-Bauer method according to CLSI standards.
Results: With the latex agglutination kit three serogroups were identified among E.coli isolates from cases of diarrhea. The most antibiotic sensitivity rates of E.coli serotypes were to Nitrofurantoin and Imipenem. A high frequency of E.coli resistance to Ampicillin and Co-trimoxazol was observed.
Conclusion: Reports on prevalence of diarrheagenic E.coli in Iran are rare and little is known about the epidemiology of E.coli pathotypes. Studies in Iran showed that diarreagenic E.coli are among the most prevalent causative agents in acute diarrhea. Therefore, knowledge of the status of the E.coli pathotypes in Iran is important for planning of appropriate public health programs for control of the disease. Also in much of developing world without access to good quality medicines, infections continue to be the major killers, and in all countries, infections with resistant microorganisms are major cause of death.