Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli from an outbreak with cholerigenic syndromes of gastroenteritis

In an outbreak of food-poisoning, 76 out of 200 students who had dined in an Institute mess experienced acute cholerigenic syndromes of gastroenteritis. Processing of the seven stool samples of affected students and remnants of 4 out of 5 type of food for isolation of bacterial pathogen(s) revealed only the presence of Escherichia coli which were serotyped as 020, 026, 045, 053 and one untypable (UT). Enterotoxigenicity testing of these isolates revealed serotypes 020, 026 of E. coli to be heat-labile enterotoxin producer when subjected to Biken test, Latex agglutination test and co-agglutination test. Based on the laboratory findings there are good reasons to believe that serotype 020 was responsible for this episode.