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June 2nd, 2011
04:02 PM ET
Cases of E. coli from Europe now in U.S.Three people in the United States likely have been stricken by the same strain of E. coli that’s killed 16 people in Europe, according to an official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Samples from the patients are on their way to a CDC lab in Atlanta, Georgia, for testing, Dr. Robert Tauxe, deputy director of the CDC’s Division of Foodborne, Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases, told CNN. The patients have traveled recently to Germany, and all three have developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, a potentially deadly kidney disease and a complication of E. coli infection. “We consider them to likely be part of the European outbreak,” Tauxe said. “We’re expecting the strains to arrive here any time now.” He declined to say where the three patients are in the United States but they are hospitalized. Infectious disease experts say there’s no reason for Americans to panic, as the bacteria hasn’t been found in food in the country, and the disease rarely is passed person to person. There have been 499 cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) in the current European outbreak, according to the World Health Organization. That’s more cases of HUS than in any other outbreak ever worldwide, according to an official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By comparison, there were 120 cases of HUS in the world’s largest outbreak of E. coli in Japan in 1996, Tauxe said. It’s not known why there have been so many cases of HUS with the current strain, called O104:H4. Tauxe said it’s possible this strain produces more toxins than other strains. Doctors in Europe and the United States do not give antibiotics to patients with E. coli infections, since studies have shown it can actually make the disease worse. “It seems that antibiotics make the bacteria explode, and the toxins inside get spit out and wreak havoc,” said Dr. Buddy Creech, assistant professor of pediatric infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. There’s no other treatment to fight the bacteria. “All we can do is give patients pain medications or put them on ventilators or dialysis if they need it,” said Dr. Robert Steele, a pediatrician at St. John’s Children’s Hospital in Springfield, Missouri. “We can’t treat the actual problem. We just wait for the body to heal itself.” “All you can do is monitor patients and hope for the best,” Creech added.
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Get a behind-the-scenes look at the latest stories from CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen and the CNN Medical Unit producers. They'll share news and views on health and medical trends - info that will help you take better care of yourself and the people you love.
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Now that is scary. No more veggies this month....yeahhh
16 people have died!!!! Who cares about this? 16 people just died because of alcohol, but some random "e-coli" outbreak is really important. Stupid people commenting on articles....
That is a very scary note.The antibiotics will make the bacteria worse.Just have it run its course & hope for the best,not good.People have already died from it.Hope sientist are able to find some sort of treatment.
Letting E-coli "run its' course" without treatment usually = death. The only way bacteria infections get worse and stronger is when people don't finish their round of treatment. The bacteria then rebounds stronger with an immunity to the treatment.
Hope for the best? Seriously?
Dave from CA clearly doesn't like to read articles before making uninformed comments.
And he hasn't taken basic science and doesn't understand there are different classifications of bacteria and not all follow the "complete the course of antibiotics" rule.
P.S. David, google Lipid A, mmmmkay?
@David: There’s no other treatment to fight the bacteria other than antibiotics which make things worse. Did you actually read the article?
Scientists will not find cure when nobody funds that research. The science just do not happens, US government must fund it. Guess where Republicans are going to cut funding? They have already canceled tornado forecasting research earlier this year...
Call your senator and ask him to support research about this..
The government can't fund research, it is too busy funding megacorporations with our tax dollars. You want research funded? Donate to your favorite university research program.
Just make sure you wash your hands after you poo, cook your food to an internal temp of 165 to kill off any bacteria, and relax. At this rate, worry will kill ya long before any bacteria will.
We have all been warned for years on this but Republicans want to cut Govt agencies down to nothing – and Tea Baggers stand by and will watch people die in the street out of blind obedience and their hatred of Dems. Just keep eating your cheese doodles and follow American Idol, vote for Palin, and we, those terrible liberal dems, will have to save you yet again.
Wow...I wondered how long it would be before the Republicans were blamed...NOT too long...
You couldn't save stamps much less anything else.
You can bet they are being blame for something... They wasted trilions in Iraq for nothing and we can fund basic science to protect us from this stuff.
what the H are you talking about? im sorry, but is some type of government program coming to the rescue on this? i dont think so...if anybody solves this, you can bet your a– it'll be a private sector pharma company... not some bloated government beauracracy... im still looking for a time where libs saved anybodys a– without punishing somebody elses a–. Medicaid, Social Security, Medicare are ALL BROKE...INSOLVENT. These GOVERNMENT PROGRAM are LIBERAL Monuments of achievement and at simultaneously objective failures! you guys have have the same mindless banter about Tea baggers and repubs...it be much more insightful to have brought forward an actual idea or fact of some type in your juvenile coffeeshop, from-the-hip post.
how many democrats voted to authorize the Iraq war? how many trillions has Obama wasted with Stimulus? How much more will he waste with the new stimulus bill he wants? how many billions is he wasting libya? how many billions did he give to brazil oil industry to fund their research while crippling ours? how many TRILLIONS has he added to our national debt? Dont forget that Dems have been running this country since the final two years of the Bush Presidency. So sadly, the HOPE and CHANGE you were promised hasnt come... because of a completely unprepared president and congress. Stop blaming it on people that havent controlled government in years.
wait wait wait... oh yes them darn Republicans... Obama pork here since you want to drag politics into this... $787 billion economic stimulus.. $71,623 to study what the report calls, "Monkeys Getting High for Science." hmm people make a choice to become cocaine addicts... could of studied e coli instead?? How about the million dollar ant watching down in Southwest Indian Ocean Islands and East Africa.
Oh and this one... wow that is one gold plated web site. ABC reports this morning that the Maryland firm Smartronix has won what seems like an enormous $18 million contract to re-design the Recovery.gov website. Approximately $9.5 million would be spent by January in order to make “Recovery 2.0″ out of the site that is supposed to track the spending of federal stimulus funds in detail.
So if the Republicans are taking away the money I must conclude that even though the liberals are forking over the cash it sure in the heck isnt to study e coli you moron.
The republicans deserve the blame. Do your research, and maybe you'll figure it out.
Maybe terrorists have infiltrated the food chain with this bacteria. Maybe our water supplies are next. But seriously, we already have no money left to take. If our food and water supplies are compromised we are screwed.
my first thought.
The sky is falling said Chicken Little.
yes the terrorists poisoned our supply in a way that 600 people out of billions of people would get sick. what did they poison, monkey-nut soup?
The bacteria are going to be tested, but they nonetheless can say it is same strain as in Europe. I don't follow. Test first, then pronounce results.
The fact that antibiotics agravate the problem suggests that other bacteria may compete with the toxigenic E. coli. Consider probiotics (kefir?) as a dietary intervention? Also, the SLT like toxin binds to certain globosides. Has anyone considered using i.v. globosides as a treatment? Is there some way to down regulate the SLT receptors?
If your smart enough, you would tell that to the CDC and not on a CNN news thread.
Apparently, you arent.
It's important to extract the ectoplasmic permeable non-resilient layer so that it is possible to then separate the covalent bonding of the nonmatricullable ions which make up the enhanced nueromonic proteins.
And don't forget the freebis adjustment to the razzlefratz factor. That is more than critical. Without the adjustment the whippleduron particles appear larger than they actually are.
dont forget the fact that coaxial flutter will play a part in your scenario.... unless of course you utilize a dicfer
And if the bacteria accidentally enter the tachyon field go to warp 9 then cloak.
and if all else fails hook it up to the flux capacitor....
I wonder if bacteriophages would be effective or if they'd cause the same release of toxins?
no they wouldn't as they cause bacterial lysis. same dumping of toxins would result. However, I wonder if an infusion of macrophages or an enhanced dialysis/filtration treatment would put the odds of survival in favor of the body by reducing the bacterial load in the blood.
Blood transfusions have been known to speed the recovery process.
I don't know why I get scared, world population is around 7 billion – something is bound to knock the human population back down eventually.
All the more reason to maintain the healthiest balance of good v. bad bacteria in the gut, where 70-75% of the cells that make up the immune system reside. A good probiotic supplement daily can help. Certainly hope those afflicted get better fast!
I don't understand why the use if IV vitamin C is not used in instances like this. Someone needs to talk to this guy:http://tomlevymd.com/index.html
You zombies better not come near me or my family, or I'LL SKIN YA ALIVE!
Skinning a zombie wouldn't accomplish much past giving you a skinless zombie. Sure, it's lower in cholesterol but I don't think anyone recommends them as part of a healthy diet. You gotta take the head off to put those suckers down.
Think about how every day there are people in this country who get food poisoning – and, thankfully, recover – and don't even realize that's why they got sick. I know someone who would get bad stomach problems off and on and the most likely culprit was narrowed – down through a lot of nitty gritty work – bagged lettuces and so she stopped eating any kind of bagged lettuces and has been fine for two years.
does she enjoy tossed salad?
I used to get periodic bouts of stomach problems. Then I got laid off and quit eating in restaurants. Voila! Haven't been sick since.
This is not just a case of simple food poisoning that people can usually ward off. E.coli is much more serious and if not treated can cause death. But this is also not something we should panic over until they announce that our vegetables carry the strain. Then panic.
Ive worked in a big hospital i was a lab tech and one thing i know is that some bacterial infections have to run their course meds wont work if it was viral they would but e coli it wont and you cant catch it from anyone so dont be scared people
Barring grammar errors and lack of punctuation, yours is the most sensible post on the page.
Nonsense. Antibiotics do not work on viruses.
You can so catch this from other people! Most of these infected were rimming each other.
This is a very bazaar incident, I wonder if there is a chance it was done on purpose ?
What's all this talk about Eagle Eye?
if they wanted to poison americans, they could just taint the mcdonalds food supply
Lets do the math. 300 MILLION people in the US and 16 died. Really. So this is an outbreak? 24 people die a day from smoking cigarettes. Lets put this into perspective.
Who died in the US?
Why the snob on Malay fiction? I find Faisal Tehrani's 1515 iutaminlling, Zaharah Nawawi's short stories to be simply divine and Anwar Ridhwan's Naratif Ogonshoto to be a masterpiece save for the fact that the sentences can be a bit stilted. I took Russian Literature in Translation course last Fall semester and finished Crime and Punishment and Anna Karenina. My Intro. to Black Women Writers class will start next week. I simply cannot wait to read Half of a Yellow Sun (I'm not going to type the author's name! ;P ) and Zadie Smith's White Teeth. I'm usually a sucker for fiction so to be able to currently read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks seems to be my personal achievement. What I'm trying to say here, Malay fiction is just as good as other literature; you just have to find your cup of tea.
I hope anyone worried about grammar on these posts gets a speeding ticket in the next day or two.
Hey I found a cure! Wait 9 months for the e-coli to disappear just like mad cow, SARS, and The Bird Flu!
Ah man... E. Coli... better raise the price of oil.
Jen, it's over 12,000 people who die every day in the U.S. from smoking, not 24! Smoking and secondhand smoke kill over 450,000 Americans every year. And to think that all those death are entirely preventable....
And I read that Phillip Morris is pushing cigarettes in Pakistan! Does that mean they are doing their part in the war against terrorism? Really? They ARE the terrorists? Shazaam! Tell the President!
Were many of the cases near Hamburg, Germany? Probably a biological warfare test by CIA to terrify people in Germany into going along with death squad murders in Afganistan. Play on words with "hamburg" – usual tainted food in US.
Or maybe a retaliation for decision to shut off their nuclear power plants.
You bought a book based on my ievrew? Why, woman, why? Destiny Disrupted is excellent. Something for you to read while fighting those labor pains (you're pregnant again, I see)
Words to describe this comment section pale. None of you cutesy posters are funny. Most of you are flipping idiots. A few posters are actually trying to have an intelligent conversation. And apparently, the rest of you don't have anything better to do.
Fact: Antibiotics are losing their effectiveness due to overuse and misuse. That's one way to affect the population explosion, but not my favorite. How about some real comments that actually help? Instead of adolescent comments? Thanks in advance.
Mother Nature must really want Humans reduced in numbers: volcanoes, earthquakes, tornadoes, measles, floods, and now E.coli in water.....
It's not from eating raw unwashed vegetables. It's from all these people rimming. Or from eating vegetables that were used for insertion.
I was diagnosed in 1969 at the age of 2 1/2 with Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome(HUS)., due to e-coli(E-O157). At the time the doctors did not know what the cause of HUS was. When I became very ill, I was rushed to The Cleveland Clinic. I was very lucky to be in the right place at the right time. In 1969 the only place in the world that had the Kidney Machine, was The Cleveland Clinic. I was one of the very first patients on the kidney machine. My kidneys had shut down and I was in the hospital on dialysis for over one month.
About 12 years ago when the news of e-coli had come out and my illness was in the news, it was not until then that I or family members knew what the cause of my illness(HUS) was. Due to my getting E-coli O157 food poisoning at 2 1/2, I started having seizures when I was 6 years old, and have had to be on seizure medication since. I was given last rights at the time.
I have written(when my cat died from Menu Foods) Senator Jim Webb(VA) as well as Lindsey Graham and Richard Durbin(Who is the Ranking Member on The Agricultural Committee) , when the Menu Foods incident happened. I mentioned that my letter not only pertained to pet foods, but to the entire FDA and Agricultural system. I asked them if they would pass a law or(laws) to ensure that this never happen again. Well it has! Our food system is not perfect, and we need to just make it better. It never will be 100% perfect, nothing never is, but we can at least make it better. In my letter to Senator Webb that I carbon copied(and added personal letters to Senator Graham and Durbin) I enclosed a list of questions as well of how we could make our Food Inspection System better. The letter was written in 2007, and it described how when I was ill and then seeing my cat die from food poisoning was personal. Well, now it has become personal again, now I am hearing people die again from E-Coli O157. Our FDA and food inspection system just needs better inspectors, and that was one of the points in my letter to Senator Webb.
The human population needs to be thinned out, the bacteria are only doing what they do best. Everybody should thank Science for the wonders of the Earth's ecosystem.
"Cases of E. coli from Europe now in U.S."
Yep, those damn Europeans are sending us E. coli by the case!
So many diseases what can we do? http://WWW.CDBABY.COM/ALL/NUNONE bye now!
It's not "mother nature" you tree hugging twit. All of these desaters are acts of GOD.
Everyone loves what you guys tend to be up too. This type of clever work and exposure! Keep up the great works guys I've included you guys to my blogroll.
Brianna Bromfield
http://www.x0syodYECa.com/x0syodYECa