Escherichia coliInfections

Abstract

Escherichia coli, the most common facultative anaerobe among the flora that inhabit the healthy human large intestine, has an important role in maintaining normal physiologic functions. But it is also the most common gram-negative human pathogen, responsible for purulent meningitis in neonates, cystitis and pyelonephritis in women and girls, and several distinct forms of diarrheal disease and dysentery affecting various age groups and populations throughout the world. For a long time the "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" behavior of this species remained enigmatic, as animal models and in vitro assays failed to detect differences in pathogenicity when E. coli . . .