E. coli outbreak in Europe caused by new strain: WHO

The World Health Organisation said on Thursday that the E. coli bacteria responsible for an outbreak that has left 17 dead and sickened hundreds in Europe is a new strain that has never been seen before.

Preliminary genetic sequencing suggests the strain is a mutant form of two different E. coli bacteria, with lethal genes that could explain why the Europe-wide outbreak appears to be so massive and dangerous, the agency said.

A food safety expert at the WHO told  that  this is a unique strain that has never been isolated from patients before  &  added that the new strain has various characteristics that make it more virulent and toxin-producing.

So far, the mutant E. coli strain has sickened more than 1,500 others, including 470 who have developed a rare kidney failure complication. Researchers have been unable to pinpoint the cause the outbreak, which has hit at least nine European countries.

Nearly all the sick people either live in Germany or recently travelled there. Two people who were sickened are now in the United States, and both had recently travelled to Hamburg, Germany, where many of the infections occurred.

Medical authorities appeared late Wednesday no closer to discovering the source of the infection. The outbreak is already considered the third-largest involving E. coli in recent world history, and it may be the deadliest. Twelve people died in a 1996 Japanese outbreak that reportedly sickened more than 12,000, and seven died in a 2000 Canadian outbreak.