**3.1 Prevalence of bacterial isolates**

From 315 children with diarrhea, 192 stool samples were positive to one suspected *E. coli* detection (60.9%). Four hundred and nineteen (419) strains of *E. coli* were isolated, from which 31 DEC (7.4%) were characterized. From these DEC, 21 DEC were ESBL-producing *E. coli* (67.7%).

## **3.2 Antimicrobial susceptibility**

All the DEC strains tested for the 10 β-lactams antibiotics showed important resistances to the aminopenicillins. However, few cephalosporins and carbapenems were yet active on some pathotypes (**Table 2**).

## **3.3 Correlation between resistance phenotype and resistance genetic supports**

Nineteen (19) out of the 21 ESBLs-producing *E. coli* (90.5%) had ESBLs genes. The following resistance genes were characterized: 12 *bla*OXA (38.7%), 6 *bla*SHV (19.4%),



