Frequency of diarrheagenic Escherichia coli among children in Surabaya, Indonesia

Diarrheagenic Escherichia coli (DEC) is a major etiologic agent of childhood diarrhea in developing countries. We investigated the frequency of DEC in stool samples from 125 diarrheal children (age, 1-10 years) and 92 non-diarrheal children in Surabaya, Indonesia. The non-diarrheal children served as healthy controls. DEC was detected in 23 of 125 (18.4%) and 47 of 92 (51.1%) samples in the diarrheal and non-diarrheal children, respectively. Enteropathogenic E. coli was the most prevalent in the non-diarrheal children (25.0%), and its prevalence was significantly higher than that in the diarrheal children (0.8%) (P < 0.0001). Interestingly, Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (4.3%) was detected only in the non-diarrheal children (P = 0.031). This is the first study comparing between diarrheal children with non-diarrheal or healthy children to investigate the role of DEC in pediatric diarrheal diseases in Indonesia.