Isolation of antigenically homogeneous strains of Bact. coli neapolitanum from summer diarrhœa of infants

The spread of infantile gastro-enteritis in a cubicled ward

“…coli, described by Bray (1945), Giles & Sangster (1948) EXPLANATION OF PLATES 6 AND 7 (Black crosses, arrows and circles indicate surfaces from which type strains of Bact. coli have been recovered.…”

“…Of recent years the strain of Bacterium coli described by Bray (1945), Giles & Sangster (1948), Taylor, Powell & Wright (1949), Smith (1949) and Rogers, Koegler & Gerrard (1949), has been found to be intimately associated with epidemic infantile gastro-enteritis.…”

“…coli, which is the name given to it by Giles & Sangster (1948). Bray (1945) described this organism as Bact. coli var.…”

“…In the autumn of 1947, a second serological type was found by Giles, Sangster & Smith (1949) in cases of epidemic infantile gastro-enteritis and was called by them type ,f. At this date this second serological type was more frequently isolated than the first, or a-type. Bray (1945) found that 4 % of his 100 healthy controls in close contact with cases of gastro-enteritis were excreting the a-type of Bact. coli.…”

“…coli were not isolated from this group. One hundred and eight children under 1 year old attending the Birmingham Children's Hospital casualty and out-patient departments for minor conditions, in which there were neither vomiting nor diarrhoea, had faecal swabs It is considered that the controls in the series of Bray (1945) and Giles et al (1949) should be classified as healthy contacts, since the work that is to be described will demonstrate the possibility that these controls were really carriers who probably acquired the organisms in hospital.…”