E. Coli Break Out: A Case Study

I haven’t heard of an E. Coli outbreak in years, so I was wondering what would be the cause of this one and where was the outbreak located. Years ago when an E. Coli outbreak occurred, a couple lost their son, who was only about 5 years old, due to contaminated meat. I never forgot that tragic event and I wanted to make sure I and my family and friends, were not affected by any E. Coli bacteria in the future. Others articles like “Kim Jong Un Pledges To Shut Down Main Nuclear Test Site In May, South Korea says” or “Burning Man Co-Founder Larry Harvey Dies At 70” are both important articles, from the title, but was not my concern at the time. Once I saw this article portraying to E. Coli, I wanted to know more, than the issue of South Korea or the death of Larry Harvey, which is not healthcare

In ground beef you can get E. coli because they slaughter the cow and then the E. coli from there intestine gets on the ground meat and they mix the meat and then that gives it a higher risk of spreading it.(Staff Mayo Clinic) In unpasteurized milk it comes from the udder of the cow and then it gets into the milk. (Staff Mayo Clinic) In fresh food it comes from the farms that can contaminate the farm. The most vulnerable to this is lettuce and spinach. (Staff Mayo Clinic) In contaminated water there can be E. coli because it untreated and there is feces in it.(Staff Mayo Clinic) Also personal contact which means that adults can give it to their kids because they do not wash their hands after using the bathroom.(Staff Mayo Clinic) Also it passed in restaurants because cooks or people working back their do not wash their hands. E. coli causes the hemolytic-urine syndrome, which is a blood and kidney disease in children. It can also cause Uninary tract infections and bladder infections or it can lead to sepsis. There is another cause Thrombotic thrombocytopenic Purpura. This is a rare blood disease. It causes clots to form in small blood vessels throughout the body. This usually causes through the infectious parts of E. coli.

Escherichia coli are rod shaped, gram negative bacteria often found in the gut of humans and other warm-blooded mammals (Jacques & Ngo, 2004). It is transmitted primarily through faecal contaminated food and water. Most strains of E. coli are not harmful to humans, however some strains are pathogenic and can cause symptoms including diarrhoea (Unknown, 2012).

I thought that the worst thing that might happen as result of ingesting pathogen while eating contaminated food is diarrhea, abdominal pain, vomiting, or nausea nothing more serious than that. It was shocking to me that people might have serious injuries that may last with them during their life time due to contaminated food. Moreover, I believed that this kind of injuries occur only for children, elders, or immune compromise people until the last pages of the book where I found Stephanie's who was a healthy athletes 19 years old girl that suffered damages in her left side of the brain after she ate contaminated burger. The damage in her brain made her paralyzed (Benedict, 2011). Reading Poisoned made me curious to know how much do E.coli and the common pathogens in food cost the United States? It was stated that only E.coli O157:H7 illness coasts the U.S. economy around 225 million dollar every year as result of approximately 63 illnesses, 2138 hospitalizations, and 20 deaths. In addition to E.coli, there are around 13 that coast the economy around 14 million dollar every years causing 8,914,713 illnesses, 53,678 hospitalizations, and 1322 deaths (Michael et al, 2012). Anther pathogens that causes enormous economic loss such as Salmonella.enterica and Norovirus. Although they are not related to the story, I thought it is important to be mentioned. S.enterica only causes 3,309 million dollar cast of illness, 1,027,561 illnesses, 19336 hospitalizations, and 378 deaths every year in the United States. On the other hand, Norovirus results in 2002 million dollar coast of illness, 5,461,731 illnesses and 14663 hospitalization, and 149 deaths .These numbers includes only the confirmed cases, so, there are millions of cases that were unrecorded (Michael et al, 2012). Looking at these enormous numbers it is obvious to me how important is the

BACKGROUND – E. coli is a food-borne bacterium that inhabits the bowels of warm blooded creatures such as humans and animals. If the individual is infected by E. coli, some symptoms can be “diarrhea, gas, abdominal cramping, fatigue, fever and vomiting.” (Pietrangelo”) If someone is infected with this bacterium, anti-biotics, which is explained by Oxford Dictionaries as “A medicine (such as penicillin or its derivatives) that inhibits the growth of or destroys microorganisms” can successfully treat the disease if it is outside of the digestive tract.

After interviewing 59 of the people they reported eating at a Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurant in at least 19 different restaurant locations. The patients were found to be infected with a strain of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O26 (STEC O26) (CDC, 2016). But then at the height of this outbreak, at least 120 people who ate at a Boston Chipotle contracted norovirus (Malcolm, 2016). This additional outbreak provided even more complexity to the investigation’s attempt to identify the disease cluster.

Escherichia coli O157:H7 causes 73,000 illnesses in the United States annually. A review of E. coli O157 outbreaks reported to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to better understand its epidemiology. E. coli O157 outbreaks revealed that in that period, 49 states reported 350 outbreaks, representing 8,598 cases, 1,493 (17%) hospitalizations, 354 (4%) hemolytic uremic syndrome cases, and 40 (0.5%) deaths. Clinical laboratories began examining more stool specimens for E. coli O157. In 1994, E. coli O157 became a nationally notifiable infection, and by 2000, reporting was mandatory in 48 states. Escherichia coli O157:H7 was first recognized as a pathogen in 1982 during an outbreak investigation of hemorrhagic colitis.

In Washington and Oregon, Chipotle restaurants have been shut down after health specialties investigated incidences related to an E. coli outbreak. Between the dates of October fourteen and the twenty-third, people who ate at Chipotle in the states of Washington and Oregon began to show symptoms in E. coli. No one has died yet due to the outbreak, but eight people have been hospitalized. Found in the intestines of animals and people, E. coli causes food poisoning and in severe cases, even death. It is most likely that the customers at Chipotle became infected with E. coli by eating the food prepared by employees who did not wash their hands before making the food. The bacteria can also be spread by improper preparation of food, such as food

“ ‘Fifteen years ago, almost all cases I had were E.coli linked to hamburger, and now I have maybe two or three.’ “ There is progress but Americans still need to work together to eliminate it

As Schlosser proves with his alluring facts, E. Coli is one of the most popular infections to be recognized throughout the nation. With his in-depth research, he provides the stories of the average everyday American who has been infected or passed away with such a horrid disease. Furthermore, Ingrid Abboud, from nittygriddy.com states, “Studies revealed 50% of fountain drink dispensers were found to be contaminated with fecal bacteria”.

This article talks about the E. Coli outbreak that has to do with Chipotle restaurants. They were given a federal jury subpoena because of the investigation of several reports of norovirus. Forty-three chipotle stores closed after 22 cases were linked to chipotle carrying E. Coli in the food. The FDA and the District of California are working on these cases to figure out why these people are contracting noroviruses.

E. coli are usually harmless, but can cause urinary tract infections, respiratory illnesses and other illnesses. This bacterium is also beneficial to humans and are part of our natural intestinal microflora, but E. coli can also lead to mild to serious illnesses in the human body. Disease causing E. coli are grouped according to the ways they cause illnesses. Escherichia coli is spread when people consume at-risk foods, these include foods such as undercooked ground beef, produce that have come into contact with fecal matter, contaminated water and unpasteurized dairy and juice products. This bacterium can also spread from person to person by unwashed hands, contaminated surfaces (fomites) and pond water.

Student's symptoms are consistent with symptoms of E coli. Parents and students of Truman and Jackson explained the types of symptoms students were experiencing and in which patients were observing. On the TMS and JMS summary Interview sheet symptoms were vomiting,diarrhea,fever and stomach aches. These are the same types of symptoms that are common with E. coli

EIEC (enteroinvasive E. coli) invades the host’s epithelial cells and results in shigellosis (bacillary dysentery). The diarrhea from this infection is less severe, but the condition can escalate dangerously.

The epidemiology of the disease depends on the causative agent. E. coli virulence requires 10 to 100 organisms to cause a disease. An estimate of 70,000 people contract E. coli and approximately 60 deaths occur from this bacteria (Papaconstantinou, & Thomas, 2007). The bacteria is transmitted via the fecal-oral route through consumption of contaminated food (66%)