Deadly E. coli strain in Europe is rare

BERLIN, June 2-- The recent outbreak of deadly E. coli in Europe was caused by an entirely new super-toxic strain, Chinese and German researchers said Thursday, after finishing sequencing its genome.

By now, 17 Germans and one Swede have been killed after the outbreak, while more than 2,000 people across Europe were sickened. The number of people suffering from serious hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS) due to the infection has reached 470 in Germany.

In its latest report, the Beijing Genomics Institute in Shenzhen (BGI-Shenzhen), China's flagship genome center, said it "has just completed the sequence and carried out a preliminary analysis that shows the current infection is caused by an entirely new super-toxic E. coli strain."

BGI-Shenzhen was collaborating closely with the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany by using their genomic technology.

E. coli strain, O104:H4, can cause bloody diarrhea and kidney failure. A genetic analysis released Tuesday revealed the bacteria are 93% similar to a bug that caused illness in Africa in 2002 but became more deadly and infectious after picking up the toxin that triggers kidney failure and resistance to 14 kinds of antibiotics.

"Once these pathogens emerge, our experience is that they continue to spread," says Caroline Smith DeWaal, food-safety director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. She notes that a 1993 outbreak at a U.S. fast food chain that killed six children first appeared in cases a decade earlier, "and it has been with us ever since."

Europe's food-safety system struggle with the outbreak Thursday as German authorities backtracked from blaming Spanish cucumbers for the illnesses. The outbreak began in early May. Weeks later, the culprit food and source of contamination remain a mystery. The outbreak has largely struck adult women, whereas past E. coli outbreaks hit children and seniors the hardest.

"I'm not sure we'd be better than the European Union" at pinpointing the source, said food-safety law expert Marsha Echols of Howard University in Washington, D.C. The Food and Drug Administration has increased inspections of imported Spanish produce.

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