Escherichia Coli Risk Communication - Case Study Example

The most serious consequence remains the hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS) that causes kidney failure and is fatal in about 10% of all cases (mostly the elderly and young children). The types of E. coli which can cause HUS get referred to as Enterohemorrhagic E. Coli or Shiga toxin-producing E. Coli (STEC and EHEC). One reason EHEC stays so dangerous is that physicians do not dare cure it with antibiotics, which may stimulate the production and release of the toxin and, hence, intensify the risk of HUS (Acton, 2011).
The period between the STEC bacteria ingestion and feeling sick is referred to as the “incubation period.” The period takes normally 3-4 days after the exposure but can be as diminutive as one day or as long as ten days. The symptoms often start slowly with mild abdomen pain or non–bloody, loose diarrhea that exacerbates over several days. If HUS occurs, it develops in an average of seven days after the initial symptoms when the diarrhea is improving (Acton, 2011).

Infections start when an individual swallow STEC. Unfortunately, this occurs more often than someone would like to think. Exposures that result in illness include ingesting contaminated food, unpasteurized (raw) milk, water that is not disinfected, contact with animals, or contact with the feces of infected individuals. Some foods are considered to have such a high infection risk with E. Coli O157, as well as another germ that health officers recommend that people avoid entirely. These foods include unpasteurized apple cider, soft cheeses made out of raw milk, and unpasteurized (raw) milk, salami, alfalfa sprouts, and mushrooms. Sometimes, the contact remains obvious (working with cattle at a dairy, for instance), but sometimes it does not (like eating a contaminated piece of lettuce or an undercooked hamburger). People have reputedly gotten infected by swallowing water while swimming, touching and petting zoos environment and other animal exhibitions, and by eating food cooked by people who had not washed their hands properly after using their toilet. Almost everybody has some substantial risk of infection (Manning, 2011).

Infection with E. coli remains highly contagious, with a low infectious bout: an inoculation of less than 10 to 100 E. coli CFU is sufficient to induce infection, compared to over a million CFU for other pathogenic strains of infectious bacteria. E. Coli is found in cattle and can live in their intestines healthily. The toxin requires highly precise receptors on the cells membrane to bestow and enter the exposed cell; species such as cows, swine, and deer that do not have these receptors may dock toxigenic bacteria without any harsh effect, shedding them through their feces, from which they get spread to human beings. The flesh can become contaminated when butchering and slaughtering and organisms can be scrupulously mixed into beef in the hamburger stage. Bacteria present on the cattle’s udders or milking equipment may get in raw milk. Contaminated foods smell, taste, and look the same as their standard counterparts. Another latent vector of E. Coli is filth flies (including house flies). Filth flies have also been shown to be E. Coli vectors using PCR (George, 2011).

A surveillance study identified one hundred and thirty-two E. Coli cases, 68 ampicillin-resistant cases, included. The case fatality rate stood at 16% (21 out of 132 cases). 70% of case infants remained preterm, and 49% (64 out of 132 infants) got born at ≤ 33 gestation weeks. 53% of case mothers (70 out of 132 mothers) acquired intrapartum antibiotic therapy; 71% of those got penicillin or ampicillin. Low gestational age of ≤ 33 weeks, membrane rupture, and or intrapartum fever of ≥ 18 hours were linked with increased odds of primary-onset E. coli infection (Adams, 2011).
The results were alike when case subjects were restricted to that septic with ampicillin-resistant strains. Exposure to a beta-lactam antibiotic treatment, intrapartum antibiotic treatment, or ≥ 4 hrs of intrapartum antibiotic therapy stood associated with increased chances of E. coli infections and ampicillin-resistant infections in variant studies. Among preterm children, intrapartum antibiotic exposure remains not associated with either consequence in multivariate simulations. Among term infants, exposure of > or = 4 hrs of intrapartum antibiotic therapy remained associated with reduced odds of early-onset infection of E Coli. Intrapartum antibiotic therapy exposure did not increase the invasive odds and early-onset infection of E. Coli. Intrapartum antibiotic therapy got effective in avoiding E. coli infection among only term infants (Acton, 2011). Read More