title: E. coli O104:H4: social media and the characterization of an emerging pathogen.
abstract: The 2011 German E. coli O104:H4 outbreak resulted in thousands of cases of enterohaemorrhagic illness, with approximately 25% of these progressing to develop haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS). This high rate of progression to HUS was the first indicator that the bacterial cause of illness was not a typical enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) strain. Collaborative bioinformatic analysis while the outbreak was still in progress indicated that the O104:H4 strain was in fact an enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC) strain which had acquired genes for the production of Shiga - like toxin.
authors.affiliation: Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre and Microbiology Department, University College Cork, Ireland. p.casey@ucc.ie
authors.forename: Pat G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Casey
authors.forename: Colin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hill
authors.forename: Cormac Gm
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Gahan
mesh_terms: D019295:Computational Biology; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D054324:Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000472:pathogenicity; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D004927:Escherichia coli Infections / Q000382:microbiology; D010802:Phylogeny; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D054323:Shiga-Toxigenic Escherichia coli / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000472:pathogenicity