Food Poisoning Caused By E. coli

The Blogger’s note: It is recently reported that Escherichia coli bacterial outbreak began in Germany in May 2011. This outbreak started after several people in Germany were infected with bacteria leading to hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS), a medical emergency that requires urgent treatment. By 8 June, 26 people had died and around 500 had been hospitalised with HUS due to the intensifying outbreak. The agriculture minister of Lower Saxony has identified an organic farm in Bienenbüttel, Lower Saxony, Germany, which produces a variety of sprouted foods, as the likely source of the E. coli outbreak. The farm has since been shut down. Further reading to refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_E._coli_O104:H4_outbreak.

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escherichia_coli), Escherichia coli, commonly abbreviated E. coli; named after Theodor Escherich, is a Gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium that is commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded organisms (endotherms). Most E. coli strains are harmless, but some serotypes can cause serious food poisoning in humans, and are occasionally responsible for product recalls. The harmless strains are part of the normal flora of the gut, and can benefit their hosts by producing vitamin K2, and by preventing the establishment of pathogenic bacteria within the intestine.
Our local nutrition scientist Dr JB Lim offers his comments to his e-buddies as follows:

Thursday, 9 June, 2011 3:30 AM
From: lim juboo

Dear all,

Thank you to you all for all those warnings and fears about E. coli outbreak circulating round through these e-mails.

After reading all these exchanges, I need to inform you that Escherichia coli or E. coli for short, is a very common bacteria found in every one of us. It is a rod-shaped Gram-negative bacterium that flourishes in the lower intestine of humans and warm-blooded animals (endotherms).

Gram negative bacteria means they are bacteria that do not retain crystal violet dye in the Gram staining protocol, but coloring all Gram-negative bacteria red or a pink color as seen under a microscope.

What I want to tell you is that most of the strains of E. coli are harmless, but some serotypes can cause serious food poisoning in humans. The harmless strains are part of our normal gut flora, and they can benefit us by producing vitamin K2 in our intestine. Besides, their presence in our intestine can prevent the formation of disease causing (pathogenic) bacteria from taking root in our intestine.

Some examples of the pathogenic strains include: O26, O103, O111, O145, and O104:H21. But I am unsure among which of the strains caused food poisoning in Germany and in Europe that produce potentially lethal toxins and death.

Food poisoning caused by E. coli usually results from eating unwashed vegetables or undercooked meat. O157:H7 is also notorious for causing serious and even life-threatening complications such as hemolytic-uremic syndrome.

However, I need to calm fears about E. coli infection in our local foods, because I want to emphasize here that over 90 % of E. coli are harmless, and they thrive happily inside the large intestines of every one of us reading this. They do not bother us, and likewise we do not bother their presence.

In fact in public health, we use the presence of E. coli in water supply as an indicator of fecal contamination, and nothing more. Their presence does not mean drinking the water or washing our vegetables in it, is going to cause pathogenic infection due to E. coli.

Their presence in water supply may mean they may also be the presence of other pathogenic intestinal and gut organisms such as Leptospirosis from rat’s urine, and those that cause tropical diarrhoeal diseases like typhoid, dysentery and cholera, including Salmonella here in Malaysia.

My previous study at the Divisions of Rural Health Research, and Community Medicine at the Institute for Medical Research found the presence of other water-borne pathogenic organisms in well water, and in open village water supply from rivers more a concern to public health and the spread of tropical diseases than the mere presence of E. coli in water or in food supply.

I hope this explanation will allay your worries and public fears.

Regards

Lim ju booFellow, Royal Society of Public Health, London (FRSPH)
Life Member, Malaysian Society of Parasitology and Tropical Medicine
Special Medical and Chief Science Adviser
The Dynapharm Pharmaceutical Group