kimatire
JF-Expert Member
- Nov 27, 2008
- 371
- 93
:smow:E. coli that has sickened thousands in Europe has become the deadliest outbreak of the bacteria on record as a rare strain is causing kidney failure in unprecedented numbers, U.S. health officials said.
At least 16 people have died and 1,624 cases have been reported, according to the World Health Organization in Geneva. The number of reported cases is based on hospital records, and the actual number of infections may be 10 or more times higher, said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.
The strain circulating in Germany and nine other European countries has caused kidney damage, a rare symptom of E. coli, in 100 times more cases than the biggest U.S. outbreak of the bacteria. That occurred in tainted meat at the Jack in the Box fast-food chain in 1993, said Robert Tauxe, deputy director of food-borne illnesses at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Germany alone has reported 470 cases of the kidney ailment.
We usually consider that a rare complication, and to have 470 is absolutely extraordinary, Tauxe said in a telephone interview. This is a new public health problem.
The German E. coli has killed more people and resulted in more cases of severe kidney damage than any outbreak on record, according to the CDCs Tauxe. However, it may not be the biggest outbreak. About 9,451 people were sickened and 12 killed in outbreaks in Japan from May 1996 to December 1996, according to a 1999 study in the American Journal of Epidemiology. The majority of those cases were acquired by tainted radish sprouts in school lunches.
:frusty::A S-fire1::A S-fire1:
At least 16 people have died and 1,624 cases have been reported, according to the World Health Organization in Geneva. The number of reported cases is based on hospital records, and the actual number of infections may be 10 or more times higher, said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.
The strain circulating in Germany and nine other European countries has caused kidney damage, a rare symptom of E. coli, in 100 times more cases than the biggest U.S. outbreak of the bacteria. That occurred in tainted meat at the Jack in the Box fast-food chain in 1993, said Robert Tauxe, deputy director of food-borne illnesses at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Germany alone has reported 470 cases of the kidney ailment.
We usually consider that a rare complication, and to have 470 is absolutely extraordinary, Tauxe said in a telephone interview. This is a new public health problem.
The German E. coli has killed more people and resulted in more cases of severe kidney damage than any outbreak on record, according to the CDCs Tauxe. However, it may not be the biggest outbreak. About 9,451 people were sickened and 12 killed in outbreaks in Japan from May 1996 to December 1996, according to a 1999 study in the American Journal of Epidemiology. The majority of those cases were acquired by tainted radish sprouts in school lunches.
:frusty::A S-fire1::A S-fire1: