Escherichia coli (E.coli) Think beyond your Laboratory? I wish to express I am one of the fortunate ones in 1980 to get a assistance from ICMR to do my Dissertation work at National Institute of Chorea and Enteric diseases ( ICMR ) at Calcutta, I thesis topic was child hood diarrhea diseases The imagination of Microbiology is entirely different in a research organization and medical college , I had few facilities in Andhra Medical College Vizag the encouragement of My guide Dr B Raja Rao was immense that I should learn a quality Microbiology. There are dedicated laboratories on every aspect of E.coli at NICED Calcutta and little work includes EPEC and Entero adherent E.coli apart from other pathogen which includes common pathogen Shigella apart from Rota virus. Although Escherichia coli can be an innocuous resident of the gastrointestinal tract, it also has the pathogenic capacity to cause significant diarrheal and extra intestinal diseases. Pathogenic variants of E. coli (pathovars or pathotypes) cause much morbidity and mortality worldwide. Consequently, pathogenic E. coli is widely studied in humans, animals, food, and the environment. The most difficult problem to understand E.coli it is a common and prominent commensal and at the same time can turn to be a pathogenic, In most of the routine diagnostic bacteriology laboratories we discard them as commensals as we have no high titre serum to identify the EPEC we isolate in infantile diarrhea cases, While there are many common features that these pathotypes employ to colonize the intestinal mucosa and cause disease, the course, onset, and complications vary significantly. Outbreaks are common in developed and developing countries, and they sometimes have fatal consequences. Many of these pathotypes are a major public health concern as they have low infectious doses and are transmitted through ubiquitous mediums, including food and water. The seriousness of pathogenic E. coli is exemplified by dedicated national and international surveillance programs that monitor and track outbreaks; I had help from Dr.Dey who helped to type the EPEC proved many cases of Infantile diarrheal disease in our laboratory as commensals without resources, at least 15 to 20% proved to be EPEC testing with high titer sera from Burros welcome , The epidemiology of EPEC infection has shifted since these strains were first identified in the 1940s and 1950s. Initially, EPEC was an important cause of infantile diarrhea in the developed world, but over the years it became much more prevalent in developing countries. The prevalence of EPEC infection varies between epidemiological studies based on differences in study populations, age distributions, and methods used for detection and diagnosis In addition, geographic region and socioeconomic class may also contribute to the epidemiology of EPEC-induced diarrheal disease, The diversity of E. coli strains is remarkable, ranging from harmless inhabitants of the gastrointestinal tract to diverse pathogens capable of causing intestinal or extra intestinal diseases. While some clinical outcomes are more severe than others, E. coli still remains a major public health concern. It is clear that pathogenic E. coli continues to evolve, as exemplified by the EAEC and hybrid strain that caused a large outbreak throughout Europe in 2011. This also points to the ease of transmissibility of pathogenic E. coli; the low infectious doses of many of the pathotypes and the potential to disseminate among a variety of sources are extraordinary. Food, water, companion pets, animals, and other people are all potential points of contamination and transmission. I wish many young Microbiologists should think beyond what they are doing, Todays concern is using Antibiotics for trivial and self-limited conditions of diarrheal diseases which have made simple commensal into an aggressive back biter. The true menace continues to be treating aggressively all the E.coli isolated in many privately run and under unscientific Microbiologists , If the younger generation Microbiologists wish to understand kindly read the article as below what E.coli means? I WISH THE YOUNGER OF MICROBIOLOGISTS THINK BEYOND WHAT THEY ARE DOING IN LIMITED CIRCUMSTANCES .
Ref Recent Advances in Understanding Enteric Pathogenic Escherichia coli Matthew A. Croxen etal Clinical Microbiology Reviews
Dr.T.V.Rao MD Professor of Microbiology Freelance writer