Patent ID: 7553490

Claim:
A method for passively protecting a human against E. coil O157, comprising immunizing a mammal with an immunogenic amount of E. coil O157-specific polysaccharide conjugated to a toxin, wherein the toxin is a B subunit of Shiga toxin 1 or a B subunit of Shiga toxin 2; and isolating antibody-containing serum from the mammal, wherein the antibody-containing serum is capable of killing, in presence of complement, 50% or more of E. coil O157 at a serum dilution of 1300:1 or more; producing a composition comprising antibodies immunoreactive with an E. coil O157 O-specific polysaccharide from the antibody-containing serum isolated from the mammal, wherein the antibodies are immunoreactive with the E. coli O157 O-specific polysaccharide conjugated to the toxin; and administering to the human a therapeutically effective amount of the composition, thereby passively protecting the human against E. coil O157.