Escherichia coli strains were isolated.from 140 pediatric patients with dia"hea and I 20 without dia"hea. Strains were assayed for heat-labile and heat-stable enterotoxin gene detection using DNA hybridization technique. Fifteen isolates from diarrheic patients and no isolate from nondia"heic patients were found to be toxigenic. Majority of the isolates contained the heat-stable (ST) genes (53%) followed by heat-stable & heat-labik (LT) gene containing organisms (27%). The Z test revealed a significant difference in the presence of toxigenic sequences between E. coli from dia"hea and nondia"hea patients. The use of DNA probe was found to be convenient to use and quite promising as a diagnostic tool in detecting enterotoxigenic bacteria.
ISSN 0115-5679 (Print)
Philippine E-Journals
