An Outbreak of Severe Diarrhea Occurs in an Intensive Care

Multiple Choice

An outbreak of severe diarrhea occurs in an intensive care wing of a major hospital.As a result,the patients are all screened for colonization and infection by the pathogenic organism.However,not all of the patients identified carrying the organism by phenotypic identification and characterization are displaying symptoms of infection.The reason for this discrepancy is:

A) some patients have a stronger immunity to the pathogenic organism.
B) the patients who are not displaying symptoms have been on antibiotics and the organism has mutated and is no longer pathogenic.
C) the patients are not all infected with the same strain of the organism that is carrying the enteric toxin causing the diarrhea.
D) the laboratory has likely misidentified the organisms.