[Sorbitol-negative E. coli 016 in a 10-year-old child diagnosed with hemolytic-uremic syndrome and in his asymptomatic father].

In Escherichia coli strains isolated from faeces and smears from the rectum in haemolytic-uraemic syndrome of a child and healthy relatives the authors assessed the biochemical activity, antigenic characteristic, sensitivity to twelve antimicrobial substances and factors of virulence. Sorbitol negative strains were isolated from the ill child and his father. The strains belonged into serogroup 016. The remaining strains were sorbitol positive. They belonged into serogroups 02, 012 and 019. Nineteen sorbitol negative strains of E. coli from the sick child caused mannose sensitive agglutination of chicken and guinea pig erythrocytes, they produced colicin V and aerobactin. Except for one strain they were serum resistant. Fourteen strains induced the oedema on the foot of mice and eleven produced a lethal effect in mice. Except for three ampicillin resistant strains the remaining were sensitive to the examined antibacterial substances. Two sorbitol negative strains of E. coli isolated from the asymptomatic father produced aerobactin and one strain was serum resistant.