Predicting the primary infection source of Escherichia coli bacteremia using virulence factors

Purpose:To investigate the role of E. coli virulence factors (VFs) in predicting urinary tract infection (UTI) as the source of bacteremia in two distinct hospital populations, one with a large general catchment area and one dominated by referrals.Conclusion:This study serves as proof-of-concept for using real-time WGS data to predict E. coli bacteremia source, highlighting the potential to accelerate infection source identification and enhance our understanding of bacterial pathogenicity. However, the practical implementation of these findings must take into consideration the characteristics of the patient population and hospital setup.