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"Germany E. coli Outbreak One of Largest on Record"

From The NYT:

Health Official Says E. Coli Strain Was Previously Unknown
June 2, 2011

BERLIN — The World Health Organization said Thursday that an unusually lethal strain of E. coli, which has infected more than 1,500 people in Germany, mystified public health officials and threatened to touch off panic in Europe, was a previously unknown variant of the bacteria, raising new concerns about the extent and severity of the contagion.
(...)
In Geneva, Gregory Hartl, a spokesman for the World Health Organization, said: “What we understand is this is a strain which has never been detected in an outbreak situation before.”
(...)
In a statement on Thursday, a Chinese laboratory collaborating with German scientists said the contagion had been caused by a “new strain of bacteria that is highly infectious and toxic.” The strain carries “several antibiotic resistant genes,” according to the Beijing Genomics Institute in the southern city of Shenzen, “which makes antibiotic treatment extremely difficult.”

The statement referred to the strain as “entirely new” and “super-toxic” and said it was similar to a strain known as EAEC 55989 found in the Central African Republic and known to cause serious diarrhea. The Chinese laboratory had been working with scientists at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf at the epicenter of the outbreak.
(...)
“This is a genetic combination we have not seen before,” he said. About 80 per cent of the genetic composition derived from the E.Coli strain 0104. But the other 20 per cent came from another more toxic bacterium.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/03/world/europe/03ecoli.html
 
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