"Detection of plasma anti-lipopolysaccharides (LPS) antibodies against enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) in asymptomatic kindergarten teachers from Buenos Aires province.

ROMINA J. FERNANDEZ-BRANDO; FLAVIA SACERDOTI; MARIA M AMARAL; ALAN M BERNAL; MARCELO DA ROCHA; MARCELA BELARDO; MARINA S PALERMO; CRISTINA IBARRA

REVISTA ARGENTINA DE MICROBIOLOGíA

ASOCIACION ARGENTINA MICROBIOLOGIA

Lugar: Buenos Aires; Año: 2023

0325-7541

In Argentina, the hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) caused by EHEC has the highestincidence in the world to date despite preventive measures carried out. EHEC infectionhas an endemo-epidemic behavior and causes 20% - 30% of acute bloody diarrheasyndrome in children less than 5 years old. In the period 2016–2020, 272 new casesper year were notified to the National Health Surveillance System, with an annualincidence of 7.3 cases per 100,000 children under 5 years of age. Multiple factors areresponsible for the HUS incidence in Argentina including person-to-persontransmission. In order to detect possible EHEC carriers, we carried out a preliminarystudy of the frequency of kindergarten teachers with anti-LPS antibodies in plasmaagainst the most prevalent EHEC serotypes in Argentina. We analyzed 61kindergarten teachers from 26 institutions from José C. Paz district, located in thesuburban area of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. Fifty one percent of the plasmasamples had antibodies against O157, O145, O121 and O103 LPS. Given thatantibodies against LPS antigens are usually of short duration, specific IgM detectionmay indicate a recent infection. In addition, the high percentage of positive samplesmay indicate a frequent exposure to EHEC strains in the cohort studied, as well as, theexistence of a large non-symptomatic population of adults carrying pathogenic strainsthat could contribute to the endemic behavior through a person-to-person transmission.Improvement of continuous educational programs in kindergarten institutions could bea mandatory measure to reduce HUS cases not only in Argentina but globally.