Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Characterization of Vaginal Escherichia coli Isolated from Pregnant Women in Two Different African Sites

2016; Public Library of Science; Volume: 11; Issue: 7 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1371/journal.pone.0158695

1932-6203

Emma Sáez-López, Anélsio Cossa, Rachid Benmessaoud, Lola Madrid, Cinta Moraleda, Sonia Villanueva, H. Tligui, Benilde Moiane, Hassan El Alami, Sérgio Massora, Rachid Bezad, Inácio Mandomando, Jordi Bosch, Jordi Vilà, Quique Bassat, Sara M. Soto,

Escherichia coli research studies

The relevance of vaginal colonization of pregnant women by Escherichia coli is poorly understood, despite these strains sharing a similar virulence profile with other extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli producing severe obstetric and neonatal infections. We characterized the epidemiology, antimicrobial susceptibility and virulence profiles of 84 vaginal E. coli isolates from pregnant women from Rabat (Morocco) and Manhiça (Mozambique), two very distinct epidemiological settings. Low levels of antimicrobial resistance were observed to all drugs tested, except for trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole in Manhiça, where this drug is extensively used as prophylaxis for opportunistic HIV infections. The most prevalent virulence factors were related to iron acquisition systems. Phylogroup A was the most common in Rabat, while phylogroups E and non-typeable were the most frequent in Manhiça. Regardless of the apparently "low virulence" of these isolates, the frequency of infections is higher and the outcomes more devastating in constrained-resources conditions, especially among pregnant women and newborns.