Shiga-Toxin-Producing Escherichia coli: Another Concern

Major outbreaks of illness in the 1990s have focused our attention on Escherichia coli O157:H7 as the major cause of Shigatoxin E. coli–induced human diseases. However, current evidence suggests that we need to expand our understanding and be concerned about other E. coli serotypes, as well.

Escherichia coli is not that harmless gut bacterium that we were taught about in Microbiology 101, at least for those of us who took our microbiology in the 1960s and ’70s. There are four recognized classes o…