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Allergan and Johnson & Johnson silicone breast implants have been deemed safe by federal regulators after a review of clinical studies and side effects reported since they came back on the market for cosmetic use five years ago.

The Food and Drug Administration's analysis didn't find a link between the implants and connective tissue disease, reproductive issues, breast cancer or other new side effects, the agency said Wednesday. Women with breast implants should follow up with their doctor for routine MRI scans because the chances of complications increase with time, the FDA said.

The safety of silicone-gel implants has been debated since the products were reintroduced for aesthetic rather than medical use. An estimated 389,000 women got implants last year for reconstruction after surgery or to increase their breast size, according the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. About half of patients chose silicone over saline implants. "Our review of this information continues to support the safety and effectiveness of silicone breast implants when used as intended," said the FDA's Jeffrey Shuren.

The FDA stressed silicone implants should not be viewed as long-term devices. As many as one in five women getting implants for strictly cosmetic reasons had to have them removed within eight to 10 years.

BLOOMBERG NEWS

E. COLI STRAIN'S ONE-TWO PUNCH

The E. coli bacteria that killed dozens of people in Germany over the past month have a highly unusual combination of two traits and that may be what made the outbreak among the deadliest in recent history, scientists there are reporting.

One trait was a toxin, called Shiga, that causes severe illness, including bloody diarrhea and, in some patients, kidney failure. The other is the ability of this strain to gather on the surface of an intestinal wall in a dense pattern that looks like a stack of bricks, possibly enhancing the bacteria's ability to pump the toxin into the body.

The thought is that the bacteria started out being able to aggregate with the brick pattern and then were infected with a bacterial virus that gave them the Shiga toxin, said Dr. Matthew Waldor, an infectious-disease expert at Harvard Medical School not connected with the new research.

With the two traits combined in one strain of E. coli bacteria, "now they are highly virulent," Waldor said. The new findings, by a team led by Helge Karch of the University of Muenster, were published Wednesday in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases. They result from two days of fevered work to characterize the bacteria causing the illness that raced through Germany in May.

NEW YORK TIMES