E coliWIKIMEDIA COMMONS
The deadly E. coli outbreak that swept Germany in May was caused by a virulent strain of the bacteria that produces Shiga toxin and is able to stick to the intestinal wall in a brick-like clumping pattern, according to two papers published last week. “Once you see it you will never forget it,” Helge Karch of the University of Münster, senior author of a paper in the Lancet Infectious Diseases, told the New York Times. The virulent strain caused haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS)–a blood clotting disease that leads to kidney failure–in 25 percent of the patients, a much larger percentage than previous outbreaks of Shiga-toxin–producing E. coli, suggesting that this strain is exceptionally virulent, a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine reported.
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