1 Laboratories of the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, and Department of Bacteriology and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh
Except in the face of an epidemic the incidence of isolation of E. coli 0111:B4 and 055:B5 in the Pittsburgh area, as reflected by bacteriologic studies carried out on all patients with gastroenteritis admitted to a children's hospital, was low in a 3-year period. The incidence of salmonella infections was relatively higher. No shigella infections were found.
It may be seen from the tables that in approximately 80 per cent of the patients with diarrheal disease no enteric bacteria known to be pathogenic could be isolated.
Submitted on June 20, 1955