WHO: E. coli outbreak caused by new strain

Started by walkstall, June 02, 2011, 08:24:04 AM

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walkstall

 

~Snip~
LONDON — The E. coli bacteria responsible for a mysterious outbreak that has left 18 people dead and sickened hundreds is a new strain that has never been seen before, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

Preliminary genetic sequencing suggests the strain is a mutant form of two different E. coli bacteria, with aggressive genes that could explain why the outbreak appears to be so massive and dangerous, the agency said.

"This is a unique strain that has never been isolated from patients before," Hilde Kruse, a food safety expert at WHO, told The Associated Press. The new strain has "various characteristics that make it more virulent and toxin-producing" than the many E. coli strains people naturally carry in their intestines.

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Elfie

and now they say it is a superbug.,,,, drug resistant and it's clinging on.  That doesnt sound like a whole lot of  good news coming from this strain.
Nature is an infinite sphere of which the center is everywhere and the circumference nowhere.
Blaise Pascal