This strain of E. coli has similar symptoms to that of "Hemorrhagic Colitis" bacteria. The hemorrhagic E. Coli that causes Hemorrhagic Colitis is called e.coli 0157:H7. E.coli 0157:H7 is a healthy intestinal bacteria in cattle, but, when humans are exposed to it in their intestine it becomes very dangerous. The image above is of e.coli 0157:H7.
...European Union agriculture ministers (click title to entry - thank you) held emergency talks in Luxembourg yesterday to discuss aid for farmers who are unable to sell their vegetables due to growing consumer fears over the outbreak.
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The EU health commissioner, John Dalli, said they were also due to review food safety alert systems to ensure warnings had ''scientific basis and proof'' before becoming public. That was requested by Spain, whose farmers were hit hard by the inaccurate warnings. Madrid has said it will demand full compensation from Germany for the losses, estimated at €225 million ($306 million) a week since the crisis began....
The financial stability of farmers that may or may not have problems is definately an effect of decisions to protect the public. As noted in the article from The Sydney Morning Herald it is difficult to find the lousy little bacteria as it takes an entire week for the first symptoms to manifest and then back tracking to actually find the source is extremely difficult. The farmers cooperating in concern of the public should have the sympathies of the public to insure they are providing openness to that investigation. Currently, all the tests of the suspected produce are coming up negative, but, the public remains fearful of these foods.
The quest to find this bacteria's source is important. Intimidating the investigators or the potential sources isn't going solve anything.
E. Coli confirmed in SWVA child that died, possible "outbreak" in NETN under investigation (click title to entry - thank you)
DRYDEN, Va. --
UPDATE: 5:16 pmLab results confirm the presence of E. coli in the child that died this weekend and the presence of the bacteria in a close contact of the child, Virginia Department of Health Public Information Officer Robert Parker said.
"The lab results confirm the presence of E. coli 0157:H7," Parker said. "That's a strain of E. coli that causes severe illness."...
E. coli outbreak strain seems unusually deadly
...According to China's BGI Shenzen, (click here) one of the world's largest gene sequencing labs, the outbreak bug is 93% identical genetically to an E. coli strain that has caused illness in AIDS patients in the Central African Republic. But the new bug appears to now sport genes that lead to both bloody diarrhea and kidney failure, as well as resistance to 14 kinds of antibiotics, instead of just one, tetracycline, like before. What's more, the bugs now lacks an "adhesin" gene (as in "adhesion") usually linked to the germ sticking to things. That may mean it has replaced that gene with an even nastier way to stick to your gut. Ain't evolution grand?
"This is a very bizarre bug, a fascinating organism," says Lutwick, who teaches at the SUNY-Downstate College of Medicine in Brooklyn and is a moderator on the widely-followed ProMed outbreak aler network, an emailed update service where doctors post new outbreak developments for each other. "But these things can happen. In biology they will happen"...
