E. coli 104H4 Mutated into a More Dangerous Form

Last summer, 4,236 people were sick and 50 people were killed by E. coli 104H4. This was the largest outbreak on record caused by a foodborne pathogen. The outbreak occurred in Germany and France. The only people who got sick in the United States had just come from Germany or France.

This outbreak was caused by infected bean sprouts. Rather, the seeds that were used to make the bean sprouts were infected. Because sprouts are grown in water, it is easy for bacteria to spread from one sprout to another. Because of the ease with which bacteria spreads in sprouts, it is advisable for children under 6 or people over the age of 65 not to eat raw bean sprouts.

E. coli 104H4 attaches to the colon and causes bloody diarrhea and can cause Kidney failure. This strain of E.coli is particularly dangerous because it is resistant to 14 different antibiotics.and can only be treated with the class of antibiotics called carbapenems.

The other thing that makes E. coli 104H4 hard to treat is that it clumps together in large groups so it is difficult for antibiotics or the immune system to kill the bacteria in the middle. The carbapenems attack the E. coli when it divides into two cells, making the new E. coli cell shed its skin. Without any skin it will not survive very long.

So far there have been no outbreaks of E. coli 104H4 in the United States. But since food is shipped around the world, it would be no surprise to see it in the U.S. Some bacteria have already shown resistance to carbapenems. It is possible that we will have totally drug resistant E. coli in the near future.

To solve the problem of drug resistance, we need to make Phage Therapy available. So far it is only available in Poland, Russia, and the Republic of Georgia. Phage Therapy should be more effective against E Coli 104H4 because of the way phage attack bacteria.The phage virus sends its DNA into the E. coli, using the energy in the E. coli to replicate itself. After it makes 50 or more Phages, they split open the E. coli and go out to find other E.coli to infect. Because E. coli 104H4 is clumped together, the Phage would easily find and destroy them, where antibiotics have difficulty even penetrating the cluster.