@article{84b755460c984fcca74fda6c7a3a6275,
title = "EPIDEMIOLOGY OF ESCHERICHIA COLI K1 IN HEALTHY AND DISEASED NEWBORNS",
abstract = "Although at least 100 different Escherichia coli capsular antigens have been recognised, strains possessing the K1 antigen are responsible for 77% of neonatal E. coli meningitis cases. K1 strains were found in 20-40% of rectal swab cultures from healthy infants, children, and adult women. Vertical transmission from mother to infant was the most common means of acquiring K1 organisms in term infants. Premature babies in a nursery with little maternal contact acquired K1 strains later than did term infants, and this acquisition may have been related to carriage by nursery staff. Capsular content and fermentation reactions of cerebrospinal-fluid K1 organisms were comparable to those found in rectal strains from healthy individuals. E. coli K1 with identical O and H antigens were found in maternal and infantile cultures of babies with E. colimeningitis. It seems very likely that host immune mechanisms play a significant role in the pathogenesis of neonatal E. coli K1 meningitis.",
author = "LarrieD Sarff and GeorgeH Mccracken and MarkS Schiffer and MaryP Glode and JohnB Robbins and {O rskov}, Ida and {O rskov}, Frits",
note = "Funding Information: source Most of babies infection.who E. coli Kl disease develop during the first months of life obtain the pathogen from their mother. This route of infection was documented in approximately 70% of infants with meningitis. This percentage may actually have been greater because we did not select more than one halo-producing colony on antiserum-agar for serotyping. In addition, rectal cultures from sick neonates yielded organisms identical to those causing disease in approximately 65% of cases, suggesting that these organisms were most likely acquired by aspiration of infected material at delivery or by the faecal-oral route during the early days of life. Bloodstream invasion with subsequent involvement of the central nervous system probably occurred from the gastrointestinal tract. The high prevalence-rate of E. coli Kl of similar capsular content and fermentation reactions in diseased patients and among healthy infants, children, and adults suggests that host immune factors are critical in the pathogenesis of neonatal E. coli Kl meningitis. We thank the Cooperative Neonatal Meningitis Study Group participants 12 for providing rectal swab cultures from healthy neonates and E. coli strains isolated from blood and c.s.F. of sick neonates. We also acknowledge the assistance of N. Threlkeld and N. Davis in these studies. L. D. S. and G. H. M. are supported by grants from the United Cerebral Palsy Foundation and the John A. Hartford Foundation Inc. Requests for reprints should be addressed to G. H. M., Department of Pediatrics, 5323 Harry Hines Blvd, Dallas, Texas 75235. U.S.A.",
year = "1975",
month = may,
day = "17",
doi = "10.1016/S0140-6736(75)92496-4",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "305",
pages = "1099--1104",
journal = "The Lancet",
issn = "0140-6736",
publisher = "Elsevier Limited",
number = "7916",
}