From Dr P. B. Marshall, FRPharmS
SIR,—Mr Martin Shakespeare (PJ, December 11, 1999, p955) stated that E coli was first isolated in the 1980s and produced a toxin which damaged the gut lining. In my distant student days (the 1930s), we were taught that E coli was a harmless bacterium present in abundance in the human gut (hence, presumably, the name "coli").
I am puzzled as to how this harmless organism has emerged in the past decade as a killer.
P. B. Marshall
Birmingham