AUTHOR=Saka Habeeb Kayode , Dabo Nasir Tukur , Muhammad Bashir , García-Soto Silvia , Ugarte-Ruiz Maria , Alvarez Julio 

TITLE=Diarrheagenic Escherichia coli Pathotypes From Children Younger Than 5 Years in Kano State, Nigeria

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=Volume 7 - 2019

YEAR=2019

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2019.00348

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2019.00348

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=Diarrhoeagenic Escherichia coli (DEC) is one of the leading cause of gastrointestinal disorders worldwide and an important public health challenge. It is often underdiagnosed during routine microbiological analysis, especially in resource constrained settings. The use of molecular tests could however help to determine the distribution of DEC and their clinical significance. Here, a study to assess the prevalence of DEC in clinical samples from patients <5 years attending three hospitals in Kano state, Nigeria was carried out. Samples from 400 patients and 50 controls were collected and screened for E. coli. Compatible colonies from 248 individuals (215 patients and 33 controls) were characterized using biochemical test, real-time PCR for detection of nine virulence factors (VF: eae, bfpA, elt, est, stx1, stx2, ehxA, aggR and invA) associated with five DEC pathotypes (EPEC, ETEC, EHEC, EAEC and EIEC) and antimicrobial susceptibility tests. One or more VFs typical to a pathotype were detected in 73.8% (183/248) of the isolates, with those associated with EAEC(36.3%), ETEC(17.3%) and EPEC(6.0%) being the most common, although proportion of specific pathotypes differ between hospitals. est was the only VF detected in a significantly higher proportion in cases compared to controls (P-value=0.034). Up to 86.9% of DEC were resistant to at least one class of antibiotics, with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole being the least effective drug (77.6% resistance). Our results demonstrate widespread circulation of different DEC pathotypes among children in Kano state that were highly resistant to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, and highlight the need of characterizing the causative agents in cases of gastrointestinal disorders.