2 Unusual Traits Blended in Germany’s E. Coli Strain

The E. coli bacteria that killed dozens of people in Germany over the past month have a highly unusual combination of two traits and that may be what made the outbreak among the deadliest in recent history, scientists there are reporting.

One trait was a toxin, called Shiga, that causes severe illness, including bloody diarrhea and, in some patients, kidney failure. The other is the ability of this strain to gather on the surface of an intestinal wall in a dense pattern that looks like a stack of bricks, possibly enhancing the bacteria’s ability to pump the toxin into the body.

With the two traits combined in one strain of E. coli bacteria, “now they are highly virulent,” said Dr. Matthew K. Waldor, an infectious-disease expert at Harvard Medical School who was not connected with the new research.

The new findings, by a team led by Helge Karch of the University of Münster, are being published Wednesday in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases. They result from two days of fevered work to characterize the bacteria causing the illness that raced through Germany in May.

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Full article at nytimes.com

"Dr. Karch also realized that the O104:H4 strain had been seen before in bloody diarrhea and kidney failure, but only on rare occasions — first in Germany in 2001, then sporadically in a few other countries. And in each outbreak, at most a few people were ill."

 

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