Diarrheal disease is considered a significant health problem, principally in developing countries as it is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality especially in infants. Studies found that STES and EPEC strains are among the most predominant causative agents in acute diarrhea. The aim of the study was to investigate the presence of certain virulence factors and antibiotic resistances of STEC and EPEC originating from infants with diarrhea in Egypt.
A total of 200 infants of different ages suffering from diarrhea between August 2017 and February 2019 were registered in this study. Standard cultural and biochemical methods were used to isolate E. coli species while; PCR was applied for the detection of virulence genes (stx1, stx2, eae and pfb A) for STEC and EPEC isolates, respectively. Eighty nine (44.5%) E. coli strains were isolated from 200 stool samples. A total of 40 (44.9%) strains were identified as STEC, and 1(1.12%) strain was atypical EPEC. Fourteen of the STEC serotypes were O157:H7. Susceptibilities of 40 STEC and 1 aEPEC isolates were determined for ten antimicrobial drugs. STEC O157:H7 strains and STEC Non-O157:H7 exhibited the highest resistance against cefazolin and no resistance against imipnem and Amikacin, respectively while, the isolated strain of aEPEC was sensitive to all the studied antibiotics except cefazolin. Results showed that STEC is one of the major causes of diarrhea that showed resistant to commonly used antibiotics so representatives must pay great attention to this matter in order to increase the health of the community.