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Food Safety Works Colorado State University Extension
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SAFEFOOD NEWS - Winter 1998 - Vol 2 / No. 2

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Experimental Vaccine Against E. coli 0157

According to a February 9, 1998, NIH press release, scientists at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) have developed an experimental vaccine against Escherichia coli 0157.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that 20,000 people are infected with E. coli 0157 each year, and about 250 people die of the infection.

The ability to immunize against this disease is important because the infection does not respond well to antibiotics, and it is thought that antibiotic use may, in fact, increase the incidence of hemolytic uremic syndrome by causing the bacteria to burst and release the Shiga-like toxin into the bloodstream.

To make an effective vaccine, the NICHD scientists chemically linked (conjugated) a polysaccharide (sugar chain) from the capsule of the bacterium to genetically inactivated toxin from another bacterium.

In a clinical trial, the vaccine against E. coli 0157 caused adult volunteers to produce enough antibodies to kill the bacteria in laboratory cultures without causing serious side-effects (a few of the volunteers had a mild skin reaction at the injection site). The power of the vaccinated volunteers' serum to kill the bacteria persisted throughout the six month clinical trial. The results of this clinical trial are reported in an article in the February issue of the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Although further clinical trials are required before the vaccine is declared protective in humans, the scientists are considering another strategy to eradicate E. coli 0157--mass vaccination of cattle--which would eliminate the pathogen at its major source.

Source: DHHS Release, February 9, 1998

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