Comprehensive study of common Enterogenic E. coli in Iran during 2010–2020: A systematic review

Most Escherichia coli strains live harmlessly in the intestines of healthy humans and animals, but virulent strains cause life-threatening infections, with young children and the elderly most at risk. Systematic epidemiological reviews on publications of E. coli pathotypes as human pathogen, the frequency of their genes and rate of resistance in the last decade have not been carried out so far in Iran. We reviewed studies between 2010 and 2020 reporting the presence of Diarrhea, virulence genes, year(s), city of sampling, human number, isolate number, resistance and diagnostic methods. This study was reported based on the PRISMA checklist, together 1650 articles were identified and 43 papers were included. The results of this study showed a high prevalence of E. coli in STEC and EAEC strains as well as high resistance of this bacterium to antibiotics. •This study is a systematic review to determine properties such as prevalence of each of E. coli pathotypes, frequency of the related genes, and resistance of common E. coli pathogens in Iran, during 2010-2020.•The results of this study showed a high prevalence of E. coli in STEC and EAEC strains as well as high resistance of this bacterium to antibiotics.•The study also revealed an outbreak of E. coli in different regions of north, south, east, west, and center of Iran•The results showed that molecular methods have a high ability to detect E. coli strains in the clinical specimens.