Escherichia coli O157 H7-associated disease:epidemiology and antibiotic resistance

Escherichia coli (E. coli) is a bacterium that is gram negative rod, up to 3 um in length, and a fermenter of glucose and wide range of sugars which belongs to the family Enterobacteriaceae. Escherichia coli was first isolated in 1885 from children’s faeces by the German bacteriologist Theodor Escherich. It is a normal commensal organism of the gastrointestinal tract of human beings and, although, generally harmless, it can cause a number of infections such as Gram-negative sepsis, urinary tract infection, pneumonia in immunocompromised patients and meningitis (Adams et al., 2010). E. coli O 157: H7 is the major serotype that is recognized as a cause of human diseases. E. coli O 157: H7 is one of the more than 60 serotypes of vero-toxin producing E. coli strain that cause that a variety of human diseases such as mild diarrhea, hemorrhagic colitis and hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) (Bryan et al., 2019) In 1982, E. coli O157:H7 was implicated in two outbreaks of haemorrhagic colitis (HC) and haemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). The emergence of E. coli O157 is linked to its genetic evolution and the fact that it has acquired a variety of virulence factors likely through transmission of plasmids between bacteria (Hernani et al.,2015).