Infectious Bacterial Diarrhe Common Occurrence Among The...

MICROBIOLOGY2 Colitis Introduction Infectious bacterial diarrhea is a common occurrence among the elderly people, children, and the immunocompromised individuals. One of the major reasons behind the infectious diarrhea is the inflammation of the colon. Colitis is the inflammation of the colon resulting to symptoms such as diarrhea, tenesmus, fever, and severe abdominal pain. The common pathologic organisms responsible for the infection include Camphylobacter, Shigella, Salmonella, Escherichia, and the Yersinia species (Papaconstantinou, Thomas, 2007). The initial infection of Camphylobacter, C, fetus, was discovered and described in 1947 after several cases appeared and it was isolated from blood (Loss, Mangla, Pereira, 1980). Later, the discovery of new identification techniques led to the isolation of other strains of the species. Currently, the identification has developed, leading to isolation of bacteria such as Camphylobacter and E. coli in culture techniques and other isolation techniques. Treatment of this d isease uses multidisciplinary approach of both antibiotics and supportive therapy. Epidemiology The epidemiology of the disease depends on the causative agent. E. coli virulence requires 10 to 100 organisms to cause a disease. An estimate of 70,000 people contract E. coli and approximately 60 deaths occur from this bacteria (Papaconstantinou, Thomas, 2007). The bacteria is transmitted via the fecal-oral route through consumption of contaminated food (66%)