Caracterización geno-fenotípica de aislados de Escherichia coli (AEEC) de pacientes pediátricos con procesos diarreicos infecciosos en la ciudad de La Paz: Implicancias para el diagnóstico y epidemiología de las enfermedades diarreicas agudas

enteropathogenic (epec) and enterohemorrhagic (ehec) escherichia coli that produce attaching and effacing lesions were isolated and characterized from children under 5 years-old with diarrhea. method: aeec pathogenic profile was analyzed by pcr searching the presence of intimin (eae), bundle-forming pilus (bfpa) and shiga-toxin (stx 1 - stx2) genes. phenotypic analysis for the presence of antibiotic multiple resistance, sorbitol fermentation and b-d glucorunidase was also performed. results: aeec prevalence was 7% and epec accounted for 95% of isolates (83% atypical). a high percentage of epec isolates are resistant to more than 5 antibiotics, suggesting resistance transmission by lateral transfer. the lack of correlations between epec serogroups and genotypic strain profile demonstrates that serological dec diagnosis is not useful for local isolates. ehec isolates were susceptible to most of the antibiotics tested. the isolation of 0157 and 06 serogroups is reported. conclusions: first report of epec and ehec molecular strain characterization. the results described are relevant for eaee diagnosis, treatment and epidemiology of diarrhea in bolivia