Abstract

Multi-drug-resistant (MDR) diarrheagenic Escherichia coli (DEC) has rapidly spread worldwide and represents the most serious threat to the management of diarrhea in developing countries. During the period from March 2011 to January 2012, a total of 450 stool samples of diarrheal children aged 060 months were studied. In order to detect enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) and enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) simultaneously, a mixture of four primer pairs specific for eltB, estA, vt1, and vt2 genes was used in a multiplex PCR. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed as the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines. A total of 140 (31.1%) DEC were isolated from 450 stool samples. Diarrheagenic E. coli exhibited high-level resistance to aztreonam (80.7%), amoxicillin (74.4%), and tetracycline (69.3%). Also, 86.4% of E. coli isolates were resistant to at least three different classes of antimicrobial agents and considered as MDR. The frequency of ETEC and EHEC pathotypes was 46.4 and 12.1%, respectively and all of these isolates were MDR. In conclusion, MDR ETEC continues to be an important agent associated with diarrhea in children from Tabriz, Iran.