Very unfair, I know (newbies--the forum is missing a poster by the name of E. Coli), but this is an important health and hygiene issue. In addition, a link at the site posits that a diet of grain (for animals and humans) makes the victim more prone to infection by this deadly disease. E. coli can be contracted from badly-cooked food of all kinds as well as other sources where people don't wash their hands properly.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_290000/290870.stm

Friday, March 5, 1999 Published at 04:28 GMT

Health

E. coli bug 'could affect more'

The outbreak is linked to milk from Scales Farm

Health officials in West Cumbria are warning people to be on the alert for symptoms of E.coli.

Nineteen people - many of them children - are confirmed to have been infected with the bug after drinking contaminated milk from a local farm.

There are eight other suspected cases.

Three of the 27 - all children - are said to be seriously ill with kidney problems and have been transferred to a Newcastle hospital.

Twelve others have been admitted to a local hospital. Six are children.

There are fears more may fall ill since people can take up to two weeks to develop symptoms.

Most of the victims are children from the Cockermouth area, but some are pensioners in their seventies.

Environmental health officers are confident they have contained the source of the infection after shutting down a pasteurisation unit at a farm in Brigham, Cockermouth, which supplied milk to the local area.

Health officials are urging people to take extra care about hygiene to prevent the spread of the infection.

Three children, one a baby girl believed to be 18 months old, are receiving kidney treatment at Newcastle Royal Victoria Infirmary.

They are described as being in a stable condition but poorly.

Twelve people are being treated at the West Cumberland Hospital, Whitehaven. This includes two suspected cases who were admitted overnight.

One of the 12 is described as poorly.

Four of the affected children are pupils at St Bridget's Primary School in Brigham, near Cockermouth.

The harmful 0157 strain of E. coli is mainly found in the gut of cattle.

An outbreak killed 21 people in central Scotland in 1996 and 1997. The number of cases in the UK has tripled over the last decade.

Investigation underway

Officials say the only common link between the cases is milk from Scales Farm at Brigham, near the Cumbrian town of Cockermouth.

Dr Stella Goh, of North Cumbria Health Authority, said officials had been informed of several cases of E. coli 0157 poisoning on 2 March.

A prohibition order was issued to stop the farmer distributing and supplying milk on 3 March.

Dr Goh said the farmer would in future use a different source to produce his milk.

She urged people who had bought milk from the supplier, William Thompson, before and up to 3 March to throw it away.

She said: "We are taking this infection very seriously. Obviously there is an alert to all GPs to be vigilant for new cases, and we have warned parents of the symptoms to look out for."

Dr Goh said there was no known treatment for the 0157 E. coli.

She said: "The patients are mainly receiving palliative care and any complications arising are being treated accordingly."

John Cain, an environmental health officer for Allerdale borough council, said milk was seized from the pasteurising unit at Scales Farm, which delivers to 300 homes.

He said: "There appears to have been a hiccup with one batch that went out."

No other farms are thought to be linked to the E. coli outbreak.

Severe symptoms

There were 13 cases of E. coli poisoning in North Cumbria last year, but they were not linked, and caused by different forms of the bacterium.

E. coli 0157 causes gastroenteritis symptoms such as diarrhoea.

It usually clears up after a few days, but complications that may arise include inflammation of the bowel, and anaemia.

In some cases, kidney problems may arise.

Dr Peter Tiplady, director of public health for the region, said: "I believe we have got on top of the outbreak fairly quickly and I feel confident things are going well."

Professor Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer, said: "This is one of the most serious foodborne illnesses, to which children are particularly vulnerable."

He added that there was a small risk of secondary infection from the bug which can be passed from person to person.

People in the area have been advised that personal hygiene is important to stop this from occurring.

A helpline has been set up on 01946 523111.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), March 05, 1999

Answers

There are several reasons behind recent outbreaks of E. coli.

One is that there are now better diagnostic tools, and the epidemiologists are better able to track it. What was once a "stomach flu" or "food poisoning" now has a name and a pathogen associated with it.

Another reason--and I apologize to any farmers or butchers I might offend (you are welcome to disagree with me)--is the overuse of antibiotics. Animals are fed low doses of antibiotics to help them grow better. But low doses are sufficient to allow lots of bacteria to survive in the host merely weakened and not killed. These weakened bacteria are under stresses which make them more likely to mutate from transpositions and phage recombinations; antibiotic resistance genes spread from bug to bug, horizontally, from viruses that infect bateria.

Another reason is yet another byproduct of industrial-scale agriculture. Animals are now often penned up with each other, more tightly and for longer periods. This is especially true with chicken and hogs.

But the main way the bug gets spread is through the fecal-oral mode. Someone's hand gets soiled with soil that contains animal waste and then they wipe their eyes, nose, or mouth. Some say that this, too, is a relatively modern phenomenon because of all the waste that industrial scale agriculture dumps into the aquifers and rivers.

Just as Y2k makes us reckon with the price of our dependence on computers, we face the consequences of relying on huge-scale industrial agribusiness to feed us. The family farm is now becoming a thing of the past, but we will miss it now in more ways than one.

-- Coprolith (coprolith@rocketship.com), March 05, 1999.

Old Git; Your post is very pertinent to Y2K. Life depends on hygeine as much as water,food and fuel. It is a very important fourth corner of any foundation for survival. Thanks.

-- Watchful (seethesea@msn.com), March 05, 1999.