United States Centre for disease control and Prevention (CDC) announced on Thursday that it is investigating three suspected cases of e. coli infection related to the outbreak in Germany. All three people have recently travelled to Hamburg.
German health officials are still trying to trace the origin of e. coli infection which has killed more than a dozen people and thousands of other ad nauseam, causes serious illness in 470. All either German residents or have visited the country in recent weeks. They focus on raw lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers as sources of disease, especially those consumed in Northern Germany and try to identify where these vegetables were grown.
So far, there is never any confirmed cases of infection in the United States with the stock in question, e. coli O104: H4, although some cases have been reported globally in the past.
In General, "says Dr. Brad Spellberg, professor of medicine at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, e. coli are packing a powerful one-two punch for those it infects. It belongs to a class of bacteria called gram-negative error, which has an outstanding ability to exchange genes with a wide range of other organisms. Mix and match the genetic material may lead to dangerous combinations that allows e. coli to resist antibiotics or cause serious illness and even death in humans.
E. coli is among the most common organisms in the human body, blanke ting our gut in huge numbers, making the emergence of new, potentially harmful strains relatively easy. -With infectious diseases that we learned the hard way is that every time we catch something, something else mutates, and changed and developed, "says Spellberg. "It is the nature of things."
What does the currently circulating e. coli especially worrying is a combination of two factors. Through its game genetic Roulette, the tribe that somehow got the opportunity to make an unpleasant form of toxin that normally do not produce, known as the Shiga toxin. Although other strains of e. coli O157 strains – including the infected meat hamburgers and spinach in the United States in recent years and has caused outbreaks of disease in the West and Midwest – has been known to produce this toxin, they have not produced this particular form.
O104: H4 has a powerful adhesive that makes it possible to keep to the gut wall, where it is more efficient to free its toxins and cause damage to tissues. -There have been reports of e. coli with this type of "glue", which mainly has been a problem in children in developing countries, but in general they are not linked to anything like the disease we have seen [in] Germany, "says Dr. Robert Tauxe, Deputy Director of the Division of food-borne, waterborne and environmental diseases at CDC.
Scientists at the Beijing Genomics Institute, working with German officials has already sequenced DNA O104: H4 and has confirmed that it contains genes that allow skilled to cause hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS), a serious disease associated with Shiga toxin exposure. The condition can result in kidney damage or failure, requiring dialysis or death. Already 16 people infected with O104: H4 died.
Tribe which contain genes expressing resistance to many commonly used antibiotics, but experts say it is less of a problem in this case because it is not clear that antibiotics are the best way to treat these infections. For some reason, antibiotics actually improve e. coli the ability to do Shiga toxin, and some studies show that patients treated with medication do worse than those provided supportive care. Such treatment may involve keeping the patient Hydrated with intravenous fluids and treatment of kidney problems or consequences of strokes, which can occur when blood clots form which patients are anemic.
Now the CDC with the German authorities in warning Americans to visit this country not to eat raw lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers. Cooking food thoroughly contaminated killing bacteria in most cases, and wash your hands often can reduce the risk of any bacterial contamination spread.
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