Pathogenic escherichia coli in Latin America

In 2009, during a session at the 7th International symposium on Shiga Toxin (Verocytotoxin) - Producing Escherichia coli Infections in Buenos Aires, Argentina, I was sitting at the back of the auditorium and realized that a large proportion of the attendees were young Latin American students, postdoctoral fellows and investigators, and many of them were participating for the first time in an international meeting where the world experts in pathogenic E. coli research discussed the "state of the art" in the field. I also observed that many of them were current and former trainees of Latin American laboratories and institutions with a long tradition in E. coli research, and those laboratories have not only contributed to the understanding of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli infections, but played a pivotal role in the identification and characterization of other categories of pathogenic E. coli. At that moment, I realized that it was the to organize a group that helps promoting the research of the scientist in this region and as a first task to write a comprehensive text on pathogenic E. coli summarizing and reviewing the accumulated knowledge generated by these Latin American investigators, which had make a significant impact on our understanding of these important human pathogens.