E. coli News and Research

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E. coli or Escherichia coli is the name of a type of bacteria that lives in your intestines. Most types of E. coli are harmless. However, some types can make you sick and cause diarrhea. One type causes travelers' diarrhea. The worst type of E. coli causes bloody diarrhea, and can sometimes cause kidney failure and even death. These problems are most likely to occur in children and in adults with weak immune systems. You can get E. coli infections by eating foods containing the bacteria. To help avoid food poisoning and prevent infection, handle food safely. Cook meat well, wash fruits and vegetables before eating or cooking them, and avoid unpasteurized milk and juices. You can also get the infection by swallowing water in a swimming pool contaminated with human waste. Most cases of E. coli infection get better without treatment in 5 to 10 days.

'Designer' probiotic bacterium neutralises E. coli toxin

A potential life-saving treatment for severe E. coli food poisoning outbreaks - developed more than a decade ago - hasn't gone forward into clinical trials because of lack of commercial interest.

8 Jun 2011

Guardian Air REME+ system helps reduce germs, allergens and airborne toxins

Hospitals, nursery schools, and other high-traffic indoor spaces have been acting as quiet proving grounds for an advanced new form of air purification. These are normally the kinds of places where germs, allergens and airborne toxins flourish. That's soon going to be a thing of the past.

7 Jun 2011

Sprouts suspected as possible source of German E. coli outbreak

German officials on Sunday said an E. coli strain that has sickened more than 2,000 people and killed 22 may have originated in a batch of sprouts produced at an organic farm in the north of the country, the New York Times reports.

7 Jun 2011

Life Technologies develops qPCR-based accurate test to detect E. coli

Life Technologies Corporation today announced that it has developed a custom test (assay) to accurately detect the E. coli bacterium that has killed at least 22 people and affected more than 2,100 worldwide, including four new cases reported in the United States. Shipments of the TaqMan® E. coli 0104 Detection Kit to test foods thought to be associated with the outbreak are now in Europe.

6 Jun 2011

E coli outbreak linked to tainted bean sprouts

It has been announced by German officials late Sunday that domestically grown bean sprouts may be the source of the Escherichia coli (E. coli) outbreak that has killed 22 people and sickened at least 1,600. All but one of the deaths occurred in Germany, the source of the entero haemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) outbreak that has affected 12 countries. The other victim died in Sweden.

5 Jun 2011

New E. coli outbreak alarms Europe

An Escherichia coli (E. coli) outbreak of disease in Germany has left 22 people dead and it is alarming populations across Europe.

5 Jun 2011

FDA constantly takes steps to monitor E. coli O104 outbreak in U.S. food supply

The U.S. FDA has been in routine contact with the European Union and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to monitor the current outbreak of E. coli O104 and to track any illnesses in the U.S. that may be related to the outbreak.

4 Jun 2011

Study: Only one third of people in the UK always wash their hands after using the toilet

With E.coli once again in the headlines, research by global hygiene experts, Initial, shows that only one in three Brits wash their hands after a visit to the toilet. As E.coli bacteria can spread from person to person by what is known as the 'faecal-oral' route, the transference possibilities of bacteria are immense.

4 Jun 2011

Preliminary data from Ion PGM sequencer reveals German E. coli outbreak is a new hybrid strain

Life Technologies Corporation today announced that preliminary data from DNA sequencing performed in cooperation with the University Hospital Muenster, Germany, on the Ion Personal Genome Machine strongly suggests that the bacterium at the root of the deadly outbreak in Germany is a new hybrid type of pathogenic E. coli strains.

4 Jun 2011

BGI genome sequencing identifies new super-toxic bacteria as cause of current European epidemic

The recent outbreak of an E. coli infection in Germany has resulted in serious concerns about the potential appearance of a new deadly strain of bacteria.

4 Jun 2011

American College of Gastroenterology offers resources on foodborne illness, tips for food safety

For consumers in the United States concerned by the outbreak of E. coli in Europe, the American College of Gastroenterology offers background on foodborne illness, tips for food safety, and expert insight from its resources on digestive health on what to do in the case of foodborne illness.

4 Jun 2011

New approach for treatment of infections of urinary tract

One in three women will be faced at least once in her life with cystitis, for some the start of a constantly recurring infection. Cystitis is caused by Escherichia coli bacteria which fasten on to the wall of the bladder by means of thread-like structures (pili).

4 Jun 2011

European E. coli strain never seen before in humans, scientists say

The food safety office of the WHO on Thursday announced that the bacterium responsible for the E. coli outbreak in Europe is a strain never seen before in humans and could mean "the infection could prove unusually difficult to bring under control," Nature News reports.

4 Jun 2011

E coli outbreak in Germany continues

As the current virulent Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) outbreak in Germany spreads, experts from The European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) are concerned not only about the pressure health facilities are being put under, but also the use of antibiotics and broader implications for preparedness across Europe to cope, both now and in the future.

3 Jun 2011

Copper effectively prevents spread of new E. coli strains

As the World Health Organisation suggests the E. coli outbreak in Germany is a strain never before seen in an outbreak - O104:H4 - laboratory science conducted at the University of Southampton indicates a role for copper in preventing the spread of such infections.

3 Jun 2011

Previously unknown E. coli strain affects more than 1,500 in Europe; source remains unknown

The WHO on Thursday said "that an unusually lethal strain of E. coli, which has infected more than 1,500 people in Germany, mystified public health officials and threatened to touch off panic in Europe, was a previously unknown variant of the bacteria, raising new concerns about the extent and severity of the contagion," the New York Times reports.

3 Jun 2011

E. coli bacterial research articles now available for free on SpringerLink

Springer Science+Business Media is offering all journal articles and book chapters which deal with the E. coli bacteria free of charge on its online information platform.

2 Jun 2011

Eculizumab effective for treating hemolytic-uremic syndrome from EHEC

In the online version of the New England Journal of Medicine, physicians and scientists in Heidelberg, Montreal, and Paris reported on the successful treatment of three young children who were suffering from a severe hemolytic-uremic syndrome after an infection with enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli.

1 Jun 2011

CMAJ report outlines challenges, approaches to manage and identify NDM-1 antibiotic resistant enzyme

An enzyme associated with extensive antibiotic resistance called New Delhi metallo---lactamase-1 (NDM-1), endemic in India and Pakistan and spreading worldwide, has been found in two people in the Toronto area, one of whom acquired it in Canada, states a case report in CMAJ.

31 May 2011

Complementary technologies for rapid EHEC identification and detection

With the recent outbreak in Europe of Enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC), Roche Applied Science and TIB Molbiol are providing scientists with complementary technologies that can be used for the rapid identification and detection of EHEC.

30 May 2011