SEROTYPING AND ENTEROTOXIGENICITY OF ESCHERICHIA COLI ISOLATED FROM URINARY TRACT INFECTIONS.

One hundred and forty patients with symptomatic urinary tract infection were investigated for serotyping and enterotoxin production. Escherichia coli constituted 63 per cent of the 119 culture positive cases followed by Klebsiella spp and Proteus spp. E. coli serotype O5 was the most prevalent (29.3%) of the typable strains followed by O17 and O25. Out of the 75 E. coli strains, 30 (40%) were enterotoxin producers. Four per cent produced both heat-stable enterotoxin and heat-labile enterotoxin, 21.3 per cent produced only heat stable, whereas 13.3 per cent produced only heat labile toxin. E. coli serotype O5 was the commonest enterotoxin producer (45.5%), followed by rough strains (52.9%) and untypable strains (30.7%). Other ET producing strains were O1, O25, O55, O57 and O60. The enterotoxin production of the most prevalent serotype O5 possibly contributes as a virulence marker in UTI cases.