| Sumario: | Objectives: Escherichia coli O157:H7 has emerged as an important food-borne pathogen of considerable public health concern. This study was conducted against the background of the paucity of data on its prevalence in secondary healthcare facilities in Benin City, Nigeria. Methods: Stool and blood specimens were collected from 420 patients with various gastrointestinal complaints, accessing care at Central Hospital, Benin City, Nigeria. The stool specimens were cultured on MacConkey agar to recover Escherichia coli. The recovered Escherichia coli isolates were further subjected to sorbitol fermentation and the sorbitol non-fermenting isolates were further subjected to Escherichia coli O157:H7 latex agglutination serology. The blood specimens were used to determine the full blood count of the patients. Results: A total of 107 (25.48%) Escherichia coli were recovered from the 420 stool specimens. The gender of the patients did not significantly affect the distribution of the Escherichia coli isolates (p=0.9114). Patients within the age group of 11 - 20 years had significantly (p<0.0001) higher rates of Escherichia coli recovery and recovery of Escherichia coli was significantly associated with diarrheagenic stool specimens (OR= 2.376; 95%CI= 1.079, 5.232; p= 0.0489). A total of 7(6.54%) of the 107 Escherichia coli isolates were sorbitol non-fermenting and 5 (4.67%) of these were confirmed to be Escherichia coli O157:H7 serologically. The presence of Escherichia coli O157:H7 did not significantly alter the haematological parameters. Conclusion: The prevalence of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in this study was 1.19%, and its presence did not cause any changes in haematological parameters. Measures to prevent the spread of this food-borne pathogen are advocated.
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