Medicine: Deadly Strain

From birth to death, every normal person carries in his bowels billions of rod-shaped micro-organisms which the doctors call coliform bacteria. Usually these little "bugs" do no harm; in fact, their presence is considered normal. But every now & then, infants dying of epidemic diarrhea are found to harbor coliform bacteria which seem to be abnormal. Last week, every baby born in Port Huron Hospital, Mich., and every patient admitted, was being tested for a suspected killer of this type which had been isolated there, for the first time in the U.S.

Port Huron's...