Epidemiology of Enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) Diarrhea in Alexandria, Egypt.

During November 1993 - October 1994, a cohort of newborns and children under the age of two years was assembled in three phases, corresponding to these villages village 800, village 806 and village 807 within the Abees field site. A total of 129 subjects was enrolled in the study during that period. Follow-up visits for each child occurred twice weekly and rectal swabs and stool specimens were obtained if the child had diarrheal symptoms. Rectal swabs were placed in Cary-Blair transport medium in the field and transported directly to the laboratory. In the laboratory, the swabs were plated on Macconkeys media, and 5 typical lactose-positive colonies were evaluated for both LT and ST using GMl ELISA. Colonies that were toxin-positive were evaluated for CFAI, CFAII, CFAIII and CFAIV by slide agglutination using monoclonal or polyclonal sera against the colonization factors and their subtypes.