[An epidemic of acute enterocolitis caused by enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli]

In an epidemic of enterocolitis on a military ship which lasted two days, 13 (54%) out of 24 soldiers became ill. The clinical picture was mild with predomination of diarrhoea and abdominal pain, and the troubles in all ill persons ended within 48 hours with administration of symptomatic therapy. Since routinely examined causative agents of infectious diseases were not detected, detailed examination of 13 Escherichia coli strains isolated from stools of the ill persons as well as 8 strains from stools of healthy but exposed soldiers, revealed that 7 of them produced enterotoxins; 5 strains produced heat-labile (LT) and heat-stabile (ST) enterotoxins, and 2 strains ST only. Enterotoxigenic strains were isolated from stools of 5 (38.5%) ill persons and 2 (25%) healthy persons. According to epidemiological investigations, infection was transmitted by secondary contaminated food due to its mishandling. The presented results prove that enterotoxigenic E. coli play a role as a causative agent in epidemics of acute enterocolitis in adults.