Bacterial pathogens of gastroenteritis
		Selected symptoms*
Causative agent	Patient age groupings	Vomiting	Fever	Diarrhea	Incubation period	Duration of illness	Mode of transmission
Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus,	all	common	rare	usually not prominent	1-6 hours	<24 hours	food
Campylobacterjejuni	all groups, especially <1 year old and young adults	variable	variable	may be dysenteric	3-5 days (1-7 days)	1-4 days, occasionally >10 days	food, water, pets, fecal-oral
Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli	adults, infants, children	occasional	variable	watery to profuse watery	12-72 hours	3-5 days	food, water, PTP, *fecal-oral
Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli	infants	variable	variable	watery to profuse watery	2-6 days	1-3 weeks	food, water , PTP, *fecal-oral
Enteroinvasive Escherichia coli	adults	occasional	common	may be dysenteric	2-3 days	1-2 weeks	food, water , PTP, *fecal-oral
Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli	<10 years (50%), 15 months- 73 years	common	rare or mild	first watery,then grossly bloody	3-5 days	7-10 days 1-12 days)	food, water , PTP, *fecal-oral
Salmonella	all groups, especially infants and young children	occasional	common	loose, wateryoccasionallybloody	8-48 hours	3-5 days	food, water, fecal-oral
Shigella	all groups, especially 6 months-10 years	occasional	common	may be dysenteric	1-7 days	4-7 days	food, water, PTP, fecal-oral
Yersinia enterocolitica	all groups, especially older children and young adults	occasional	common	mucoid, occasionally bloody	2-7 days	1 day-3wks average 9 days)	food, water, PTP, pets, fecal-oral
Vibrio cholerae	all groups	common and watery	variable	may be profuse	9-72 hours	3-4 days	fecal-oral, food, water
*PTP = person-to-person.