On the prolonged course of intestinal coli infections in children

Acute gastrointestinal diseases in infants, especially in the first year of life, are most commonly caused by enteropathogenic Escherichia coli. The clinical picture of coli infection is characterised by a polymorphism of symptoms; the course of the disease is both acute and prolonged. To elucidate causes of prolonged course of coli infection we used clinical observations, accompanied by repeated stool examination for pathogenic E. coli strains (026, 055, 0111, 145), by standard bacteriological and fluorescent serological methods, and statistical data. We considered as protracted forms of the disease cases in which children had liquid stools for more than 30 days from the beginning of the disease.