Community carriage of ESBL-producing Escherichia coli is associated with strains of low pathogenicity: a Swedish nationwide study.

Objectives: Community carriage of ESBL-producing Escherichia coli (EPE) is common worldwide and there is a need to understand the connection between carriage and infection. We compared the molecular characteristics of EPE among Swedish community carriers with those of EPE causing invasive infections.

Methods: We collected 2134 faecal samples from randomly selected Swedish inhabitants and examined them for the presence of EPE.