Well, It's A Good Thing That Trip To Germany Didn't Pan Out

You know, one of these days I'm going to get the hang of the whole "posting every day" thing on blogs. Anyway, today I was bombarded by a number of texts saying that it was a good thing that one of my friends hadn't made his trip to Germany this summer because a rather virulent strain of E Coli has been breaking out in Northern Germany and Sweden. That is, he didn't go for a variety of reasons, and none of them were related to this breakout, but him not going may have been really beneficial in the end.

At least 16 people have died and 1,624 cases have been reported, according to the World Health Organization in Geneva. The number of reported cases is based on hospital records, and the actual number of infections may be 10 or more times higher, said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

Since I have a rather vested interest in the friend who was supposed to be going to Germany (he's cute, sue me), and an interest in our friend Escherichia coli (cute in its own right, but really because I did an experiment with a K-12 strand for my class last semester involving raising Triclosan-resistant bacteria---oh, hell, the whole worksheet is right here on 4shared), I decided to dig a little bit about this new strain.

This new strain, originally labeled 0104:H4 has been relabeled because the strain in Germany that has now killed 16 people with 1,624 cases total (two of which were American that traveled to Germany in recent weeks) appears to be different than previous 0104:H4 strains, and more virulent. Though genetic sequencing has said it is around 93% closer to 55989 E Coli with a few added pathogenic sequences added in.

So pretty much, it's a lot like other bacteria out there, only better at killing us. It's like when Street Fighter used to just have a few top tier baddies out there, then all of a sudden, we got M. Bison as an actual, playable character.

Which makes me think this:



This is one hell of a strain. It doesn't just cause abdominal cramps and diarreha as previous strains might've, it also shuts down the kidneys and releases toxin into the body. Doctors also can't treat their patients with antibiotics for two reasons, #1: most scientists believe they make matters worse, because killing EHEC results in the release of more toxin. And #2: The strain is highly resistant to most antibacterial drugs.

Hmm. Maybe creating Triclosan-resistant bacteria in the lab wasn't such a good idea after all.