New E.coli bacteria: Faster, more toxic reproduction

Scientists are digging up the gene sequence of the new E.coli strain to find ways to treat patients as well as prevent similar pandemics in the future.

Bean sprouts on a farm in northern Germany are the source of the new strain of E. coli bacteria.
(Source: Guardian )

Although the new gene sequence of the new strain of E. coli has been sequenced, scientists still do not understand where this bacterium is circulating in Europe and why it is so virulent. According to epidemiologists, the new E.coli strain may be a variant of a strain discovered a decade ago in Germany.

German investigators said that the source of the disease is the bean sprouts grown on a clean vegetable farm in the north of the country. So far, the bacterium has killed at least 35 people and caused 3,100 people to become ill, many of whom have severe kidney failure. Most patients in Germany, the rest came from 13 European and American countries, most of them went to Germany.

Flemming Scheutz, director of the laboratory of the Coordination Center of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Denmark, said that the new strain is very easy to receive new genes. E. coli continuously evolves and exchanges genes with other strains in humans and animals, so there are many opportunities for increased virulence.

Some E.coli strains were also highly virulent, but scientists needed some more samples to understand the new strain. According to Stephen Smith, a microbiologist at Trinity University, Ireland, the new strain of E. coli seems to cling to the human gut in a different way, and reproduce faster than other strains. This is why this strain is deadly.

The researchers also discovered the new strain of E. coli with at least 8 resistance genes for many antibiotics.