News & Perspective

– German researchers who were the first to release the initial genome sequence of the Escherichia coli O104:H4 outbreak strain published their in-depth findings yesterday, which found that it differed from a 2001 strain found in Germany, but that both could have evolved from a common progenitor.

(CIDRAP News) – French public health officials have linked five more Escherichia coli O104:H4 infections to the cluster of Bordeaux patients who ate sprouts at an event in early June, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) reported today.

(CIDRAP News) – A French probe into a cluster of Escherichia coli O104:H4 infections in Bordeaux revealed today that the strain isolated from patients is genetically related to the one that has sickened thousands of people in Germany, according to a Eurosurveillance report.

(CIDRAP News) – The count of cases and deaths in Europe's Escherichia coli outbreak pushed higher today, with various news reports citing about 1,500 cases and 17 deaths, while the source of the epidemic remained a mystery.

(CIDRAP News) – Questions abounded today concerning the large and growing outbreak of Escherichia coli infections concentrated in northern Germany, including where it came from, why it is striking mostly women, and why the number of reported hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) cases, at 276, is so unusually high.

(CIDRAP News) – An unusual strain of Escherichia coli O157 that standard laboratory culture methods cannot detect has been identified in a disease outbreak associated with a nursery in Scotland and in other cases in Scotland and England, according to recent news reports.