Researchers Discover E. Coli Can Spread as Rapidly as Swine Flu: Study:

Researchers have for the first time determined the E. Coli bacteria transmission rates between people and found that one strain travels as quickly as the swine flu.

Using genomics from the UK and Norway, scientists built transmission models and identified key differences between strains.

Their research provides novel insights for the monitoring and control of antibiotic resistant bacteria in the community and in hospitals.

Escherichia coli (E. coli), a gut microbe, has been documented for the first time as having the potential to spread through populations at rates as fast as the swine flu.

Along with other researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute the University of Oslo, the University of Helsinki, and Aalto University in Finland, the researchers determined the rate at which one person can transmit gut bacteria to others.

Published in Nature Communications on November 4, the research analyzed three primary E. coli strains that were and still are prevalent in the UK and Norway.

Of these three strains, the two that were resistant to multiple antibiotic classes were the most prevalent, as well as the most common triggers for urinary tract infections and bloodstream infections in both countries.

Constructive public health measures geared toward optimizing oversight of said strains could be useful in establishing preventative measures aimed at controlling treat-and-manage-resistant infection-borne outbreaks.

From a longer perspective, understanding E. coli’s genetic predispositions that warrant its spread will potentially allow a targeted approach in managing obviating broad-spectrum antibiotics.

Adaptation of this study’s approach in other bacterial pathogens will foster the management of invasive bacterial infections and improve infection control measures.

Globally, E. coli accounts for and causes a significant volume of infections that spread and cause sickness. However, only a small number of clinically relevant E. coli strains lack harmless and gut commensal status. They can enter the human body and cause macro-epidemiological-seed and socio epidemiological- surface-borne infections through kissing and other forms of contact like food sharing.

In cases of septic urinary tract infections, the urinary tract E. coli causes acute and serious infections- caused by E. coli- that spread and cause sickness.

The basic reproduction number, R0, defines the basic and minimum nucleotide requirements for a pathogen in a sequence and its rated infectiousness for a certain population.

The number captures the expected volume of infection that a single initially infected person will cause within a population. This variable is more relevant for and is used in the prediction of eruption- and thus eruption- controlling measures of certain viruses.

Research has not assigned R0 values to gut gut bacteria even though they may not cause illness and may remain in the R0 value in the host.

In response, the team integrated the UK Baby Biome Study with previously compiled genomic data on E. coli bloodstream infections from the UK and Norway, conducted by the Wellcome Sanger Institute.

This team of researchers used the ELFI3 (Engine for Likelihood-Free Inference) software to construct a new model to estimate R0 for the three predominant E. coli strains in the study.

Their model showed a specific E. coli strain, ST131-A, has the capacity for human-to-human transmission at a rate comparable to some pandemic viruses such as H1N1. This is a remarkable finding, considering E. coli is not a droplet-transmitted illness.

In contrast, the other two strains, ST131-C1 and ST131-C2, may not spread easily, but they are resistant to multiple antibiotics. While they may not spread easily among healthy carriers, they could facilitate other members of the population due to hospital and healthcare exposure. These healthcare environments may allow the stably resistant strains to spread rapidly through highly vulnerable populations.

Comprehending R0 for Bacteria:

Determining R0 for bacteria allows for a better understanding of the transmission dynamics of bacterial infections.

This also helps discern the most dangerous strains, which could refine public health efforts to better safeguard individuals with weakened immune defenses.

Fanni Ojala, M.Sc., co-first author at Aalto University in Finland, remarked, "With a considerable amount of systematically organized data, a simulation model was created to project R0 for E. coli. To our knowledge, this was not only a first for E. coli, but a first for any bacteria residing in our gut microbiome. Now that we have this model, it should be possible to apply it to different bacterial strains in the future to help us understand, monitor, and, we hope, eliminate the spread of antibiotic-resistant infections."

Uninvolved in this research, Dr. Trevor Lawley, Group Leader at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, and co-lead of the UK Baby Biome Study, remarked, "E. coli is one of the first bacteria that is found in a baby's gut microbiome. To understand how our bacteria influence our health, we need to know our starting point--which is why the UK Baby Biome study is so crucial. It is wonderful to see that our UK Baby Biome study data is being utilized by other researchers to discover new ideas and approaches that will, we hope, benefit all of us."

The success of this study was based on extensive genomic data from the UK and Norway, all sequenced at the Wellcome Sanger Institute.

This enabled a detailed identification of patterns of transmission.

The datasets came from prior work published in The Lancet Microbe,4,5 which was the basis for the modeling advance made in this new research.