Incidence Of Enteropathogenic Escherichia Coli Among Children With Or Without Diarrhoea In Aba. Nigeria.:- Mgbajiaka, Nonye C

ABSTRACT

The incidence of enleropathogenic Escherichia coli among children with or without diarrhoea in Aba Nigeria. Two hundred stool samples were collected from infants and The samples MacConkey and Blood agar and incubated aerobically at 37”C for 24h. Colonies showing tested using various biochemical tests. The E. coli strains were further serotyped using enleropathogenic E. coli monovalent antisera. The incidence ofEPEC as a causative agent of infantile diarrhea was found to be 19.5 % in the diarrhoeal group and 6% in the control group. The study revealed that the serotype 026k.60 B (6) had the highest most prevalent in Aba with rate of 48.7% followed by 0126 K 71 BC (16) and 0111 k58 B (4) with rates of 20.5% and 12.8%. A total of 17.9% of the isolated E. coli were untyped. The most susceptible age group infected by EPEC was 7-13 month followed by 14-20 month age group. Antibiotic susceptibility test showed that the enleropathogenic E. coli isolated was highly resistant to commonly used antibiotic Ampicillin, Septrin and Ampiclox with resistant rates of 89.7%, 71.8% and 64.1% respectively. More so Ciprofloxacin, Ceftriaxone and Tarivid showed high degree of sensitivity to the EPEC isolated with rates of 92.1%, 82.1% and 76.9% respectively. All the three EPEC serotypes isolated survived in various weaning foods. Growth profile of the strains showed to be a logarithmic phase of growth during the first 6hours. This study demonstrated that enleropathogenic E. coli is the most common bacteria causing diarrhoea in infants. E. coli can survive in infant weaning foods if not consumed after preparation or held for less than 8 h. Ampicillin, Ampiclox and Septrin are quite ineffective in treating these infections xiii were collected from five hospitals in Aba. The stool samples were cultured on typical E. coli growth were significant effect (P< 0.05), indicating that it was