Intestinal Pathogenic Escherichia coli

Intestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli strains that cause diarrhea can be divided into at least six different categories, and each type is associated with a distinct pathogenic mechanism. Taken together, these organisms represent the most common causes of pediatric diarrhea worldwide. In recent years, a large amount of information has been generated regarding the virulence mechanisms used by the different categories of diarrheagenic E. coli to produce several distinct clinical syndromes. This review describes how their pathogenic schemes underlie the clinical manifestations, treatment approach, and epidemiologic investigation of these important pathogens and examines in detail the past and current progress in the development of vaccines against these categories of diarrheagenic E. coli.