Diagnostic des infections à Escherichia coli entérohémorragique

Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) are responsible for gastrointestinal diseases such as diarrhea or bloody diarrhea and can lead to hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) in children or thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) in adults. HUS is the leading cause of acute renal failure in young children The most common EHEC serotype associated with human disease is O157:H7. Five major EHEC serotypes have been identified until now in Europe (O157:H7, O26:H11, O103:H2, O111:H8 and O145:H28), but a large number of other EHEC serotypes are also known like EHEC O104:H4 that recently caused two HUS outbreaks in Germany and France. The reservoir of EHEC is mainly the intestinal tract of ruminants: Transmission of EHEC to humans occurs through consumption of contaminated food or water and through direct contact from person to person or from infected animals (cattle in particular). The diagnosis of the EHEC infections relies on isolation of EHEC in stool samples or detection of genes encoding for Shigatoxins.