Escherichia colidiarrhoea

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Abstract
Ever since Escherich (1885) first isolated the organism now known asEscherichia colifrom the stools of infants, medical microbiologists have been faced with the problem of distinguishing between those strains capable of causing diarrhoea and those that are harmless gut commensals. Epidemiological investigations were greatly facilitated by the description by Kauffmann (1947) of a serotyping scheme forE. coli, and Taylor (1961) later reported that 17 0 serogroups ofE. colihad been implicated as possible causes of epidemic infantile enteritis. These infantile enteropathogenicE. coli(EPEC), having been discovered by epidemiological studies using serotyping, belonged by definition to a restricted range of serogroups. More recently it was shown that otherE. colistrains may produce enterotoxins, and these enterotoxigenicE. coli(ETEC) usually belong to particular serogroups which are different from those associated with EPEC.E. colistrains belonging to a third range of serogroups may cause an illness resembling shigella dysentery, and these may be regarded as entero-invasiveE. coli(EIEC).E. colistrains that cause diarrhoea may therefore be considered as three groups, as follows.