University Hospital Münster/Institute for HygieneThe 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...