[The characteristics of the intestinal Escherichia microflora in patients with acute intestinal infections]. / Kharakteristika ésherikhioznoi mikroflory kishechnika bol'nykh ostrymi kishechnymi infektsiiami.

ABSTRACT

The content of enterobacteria in fecal samples obtained from 1,146 patients with acute enteric infections was studied. In the first days of the disease about 70% of the patients were found to have abundant and highly diversified intestinal microflora with Escherichia contamination of feces constituting 10(6)-10(7) microbial cells/g in children and 10(7)-10(8) microbial cells/g in adults. The number of patients excreting Escherichia and pathogenic enterobacteria increased from 8.8% (children under 6 months) to 28.6% (adults), the number of patients excreting Escherichia and opportunistic enterobacteria decreased from 69.1% (children under 6 months) to 36.8%. In 75% of cases the reverse relationship between the number of Escherichia and opportunistic enterobacteria was registered, the latter numbering two and more genera in 50% of cases. The serological picture of Escherichia was poorer when they were isolated simultaneously with shigellae (83 O-groups) than in those cases when Escherichia alone were isolated (108 O-groups), or when Escherichia were isolated simultaneously with opportunistic enterobacteria (119 O-groups).