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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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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.