E-Coli back in the news – bacteria contains plague DNA
Eat Those Vegetables
The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that the deadly E. coli outbreak in Germany has been located.
Woops - No You Don't
According to the story, “…tests on bean sprouts from a northern German organic farm showed a match with the bacterial strain responsible for the infection that has rattled European consumers…”
Officials came to that conclusion after a week of equivocating over whether or not bean sprouts were the source. Originally, the contamination was thought to have come from Spanish cucumbers. Authorities then focused on the Spanish slug, a pest that apparently has become widespread in Germany.
Officials now conclude it was sprouts, but what remains to be discovered is how this virulent strain came to be.
The E-coli bacteria exists naturally in the human stomach, but it is an innocuous strain that aids in digestion. The bug now responsible for killing 31 people and sickening over 3,000 is a variant heretofore unknown.
In a story at Speigel International Online, (The Epidemic Detectives: The Hunt for the Source of Germany’s E. Coli Outbreak, May 31, 2011), the authors quoted Rolf Stahl, head of Third Medical Clinic and Polyclinic at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, as saying, “We are dealing with a completely new clinical picture… none of us doctors has ever experienced anything quite like this…”
According to Speigel, in the most serious cases:
These patients suffer from a life-threatening complication known as hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS). About 10 days after the diarrhea begins, the red blood cells suddenly disintegrate, blood clotting stops working and the kidneys fail. In many cases patients need dialysis to stay alive…In Germany, about 60 people a year contract hemolytic-uremic syndrome after being infected with [E. coli]. Last week, there were as many cases in a single day. According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the national German institution responsible for disease control and prevention, there were 276 HUS patients in German hospitals by Friday.
RKI’s director of Escherichia coli (E-coli) consulting laboratory, Helge Karch, a lifelong E-coli researcher said, “…I’ve never encountered something like this.”
The bug contains DNA from the Bubonic Plague, suggesting that this may not be a natural mutation but a weaponized version. According to an article in the Atlantic Wire:
On Tuesday, the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that Karch had discovered that the O104:H4 bacteria responsible for the current outbreak is a so-called chimera that contains genetic materia from various E. coli bacteria. It also contains DNA sequences from plague bacteria, which makes it particularly pathogenic. There is no risk, however, that it could cause a form of plague, Karch emphasized in remarks to the newspaper.
While researchers try to understand how this virulent bug evolved, none have yet speculated whether or not it represents a manmade mutant.
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17 U.S.C. §512 compliance: click here to read Jim’s column at the Examiner
This article was offered by businessman and Examiner.com columnist Jim Simpson, a former White House staff economist and budget analyst. He’s best known for his exposé on the Cloward Piven Strategy of economic sabotage.
His work has been published at Big Government, Big Peace, Emerging Corruption, American Thinker, Washington Times, WorldNetDaily, FrontPage Magazine, Soldier of Fortune, Right Side News and others. Check him out at his site CrisisNow or contact Jim by email at
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