Photo by prep4md from flickr
With a recent scare of EHEC outbreak, let’s go over some of the must-know facts to protect ourselves.
Germany issued the early warning for steep increase of patients with Haemolytic-Uraemic Syndrome on May 22, 2011. 276 patients were diagnosed of Haemolytic-Uraemic Syndrome and two were dead from April 25 to May 27. EHEC patients are being reported continuously from all over the Europe since then. As of June 6 in Europe time, 2333 patients from 12 European countries are diagnosed with EHEC, and 2 patients are reported in the US according to the report posted on the ECDC(European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control).
Although its strain is rare, it is not the first time to be identified according to the report of WHO. It has been seen in humans before, but never in an EHEC outbreak. But the identification of a new strain of EHEC will help tracking down the point of EHEC outbreak.
The ECDC reported, “It has the various characteristics that make it more virulent and toxin-producing.”, and the public media used the term of super-bacteria; which have caused anxiety among people. However, the use of the term, ‘super-bacteria’ is not appropriate since it only showed the resistance on 3rd generation cephalosporin antibiotics and a few other antibiotics.
Although the use of antibiotics can kill the EHEC bacteria, antibiotics and antidiarrhotica must be avoided when treating Haemolytic-Uraemic Syndrome and hemorrhagic diarrhea caused because EHEC bacteria release toxins when they die, thus, the patient’s condition becomes more severe.
EHEC bacteria spread through a direct contact with infected meat, unprocessed milk, polluted water, animals or humans. Thus, it is crucial to keep the prevention manual of avoiding common food poisoning such as maintaining cleanliness of food you eat and washing hands thoroughly.
Original Post written by Mabari (in Korean)
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