ICROBIOLOGIC CONTROL AND SERODIAGNOSIS OF ESCHERICHIA COLI O157:H7 ON KINDERGARTENS? STAFF IN BUENOS AIRES CITY AND SUBURBAN AREAS

AMARAL MARÍA MARTA; JORGE TRELLES; FERNANDEZ BRANDO ROMINA; MARIANA UGARTE; LETICIA BENTANCOR; MARINA PALERMO; MARTIN LANDRIEL; CRISTINA IBARRA; CIOCCHINI ANDRES; MARCELO DA ROCHA; GABRIEL BRIONES

MEDICINA (BUENOS AIRES)

MEDICINA (BUENOS AIRES)

Lugar: Buenos Aires; Año: 2017 vol. 77 p. 185 - 190

0025-7680

Shiga toxin (Stx)-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) infections are implicated in the developmentof the life-threatening hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS). Despite the magnitude of the social andeconomic problems caused by HUS, no licensed vaccine or effective therapy is presently available for humanuse. At the moment, prevention of STEC infections is the most important task to reduce HUS incidence. This isespecially true for Argentina because HUS incidence among children is extremely high and shows an endemicbehavior. The aim of this work was to analyze serologically and microbiologically adult staff of kindergartens inBuenos Aires city and suburban area in order to detect possible carriers, and to educate personnel about goodpractices to reduce HUS transmission. We also assessed the microbiological quality of water and meal samplesfrom the same kindergartens. We tested 67 healthy adults, 13 water supplies and 6 meals belonging to 6 publickindergartens. We also studied hand swabs for isolation of STEC and serum samples for the presence of antibod-ies against Stx and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) of O157 serogroup. We identified 46 Stx2-positive individuals, but only 7 for O157 LPS. No presence of STEC pathogens was detected in hands of staff, water or meal samples.