Unusual Traits Blended in Germany E. Coli Strain

NY Times ^ | June 22, 2011 | GINA KOLATA

[neverdem]

University Hospital Münster/Institute for Hygiene
The E. coli O104:H4 strain has a pattern that looks like a stack of bricks on cultured intestinal epithelial cells.

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.

The thought is that the bacteria started out being able to aggregate with the brick pattern and then were infected with a bacterial virus that gave them the Shiga toxin, said Dr. Matthew K. Waldor, an infectious-disease expert at Harvard Medical School who was not connected with the new research.

With the two traits combined in one strain of E. coli bacteria, “now they are highly virulent,” Dr. Waldor said. The new findings, by a team led by Dr. Helge Karch of the University of Münster, were 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.

Experts in the United States praised the German scientists’ work. The work and the entire outbreak are “a real game-changer,” said Dr. Philip I. Tarr, a professor of pediatrics and an expert in...

--snip--

In fact, Dr. Karch said, E.coli O157:H7 is thought to have traveled to Europe from America in 1610, spread by cattle...

[neverdem]

Characterisation of the Escherichia coli strain associated with an outbreak of haemolytic uraemic syndrome in Germany, 2011: a microbiological study

[neverdem]

micro ping

[pacpam]

why do I have that nagging feeling there was intervention by scientists to get this deadly combo.

[Tazlo]

And it started just after OBL was whacked.

[Wuli]

“In fact, Dr. Karch said, E.coli O157:H7 is thought to have traveled to Europe from America in 1610,”

Are they saying that the “native Americans” got together and decided to send a local disease back across the Atlantic, in retaliation for the “genocide” that “European” diseases had been intentionally unleashed to cause against “the natives” all over “the Americas”. (only “our” bio-weapons were superior to “theirs”) /sarc

[Georgia Girl 2]

Sounds suspiciously like bio engineering.

[Elendur]

” a highly unusual combination “
///
may not be engineered, but you were certainly right,
a few weeks ago, when you said it was not ordinary,
and was worth keeping an open mind about.

[chris_bdba]

I had a thoght about that and wondered myself....

[chris_bdba]

I had a thought about that and wondered myself....

[PGalt]

Thanks VERY much for the post (and all of your posts), neverdem. VERY interesting.

Health/life BUMP!

[muawiyah]

The reason you have that feeling is that you probably believe things like this can only happen when a group of mad scientist conspirators get together and DO STUFF.

Now, try this one. Germans change their underwear once a month at best. How often do you imagine they wash and clean the reusable grocery bags they tote everywhere?

I'd bet NEVER, and Fur Shur they buy only the longest lasting ones.

After a while something is going to happen in one of those bags and it's not going to be nice. Then it's going to get out somewhere ~ maybe a restaurant ~ maybe a Spring Festival down at the neighborhood Farmer's Market ~

[Free Vulcan]

Sounds like it to me.

[editor-surveyor]

A bacterium with designer genes?

[editor-surveyor]

>> “Germans change their underwear once a month at best.” <<

.
That comment is beneath even you.

The germans are known as a group, to be obsessed with order and cleanliness.

[muawiyah]

Alas public survey after public survey has revealed the reputation does not extend to the undergarments.

BTW, that is common knowledge ~ and Germans are hardly a VICTIM CLASS type people.

[mapmaker77]

Did anyone ever determine where this bug came from, and is the organic farm still closed.

[silverleaf]

I never knew cattle were being transported back to Europe from the New World in 1610

[BIGLOOK]

But the strain that caused the German outbreak does not seem to live in animals.

“I think it is human-specific,” Dr. Karch said. And that increases the mystery of where it goes between outbreaks.

This alone is bothersome. The spontaneity of the combination of traits, the reticence in identifying a host and targeting a source of the contamination leads to assumptions beyond my ken. (This, of course, is from the NYT reporting only.

Going to your follow up.

[silverleaf]

http://blogs.nature.com/news/2011/06/the_german_e_coli_outbreak_40.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+news%2Frss%2Fthe_great_beyond+%28The+Great+Beyond+-+Blog+Posts%29&utm_content=Twitter&WT.mc_id=TWT_NatureNews

seems it’s going human-to-human, and people are still getting sick although at a slower rate

the sprout farm is hydroponic so it’s not manure that introduced the bacteria, but most likely a human host

[familyop]

"The germans are known as a group, to be obsessed with order and cleanliness."

Order, yes. Known during the world wars for being tidy.