Multistate E coli outbreak tied to McDonald's Quarter Pounders
From CDC:
CDC, public health and regulatory officials in several states, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA-FSIS) are collecting different types of data to investigate a multistate outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 infections.
Epidemiologic data show that Quarter Pounder hamburgers served at McDonald’s are contaminated with E. coli and are making people sick. Early information from FDA indicates onions may be a source of this outbreak. Investigators from all agencies are working quickly to determine the contaminated ingredient.
The naming of pathogenic E. coli is a bit of mess.
- STEC (Shigatoxigenic E. coli) refers to E. coli strains that produce a toxin called shigatoxin.
- VTEC (Verotoxigenic E. coli) refers to E. coli strains that produce verotoxin, which is just another term for shigatoxin produced by STEC. This means that STEC and VTEC are interchangeable.
- EHEC (Enterohemorrhagic E. coli) specifically refers to the strains of STEC/VTEC that cause serious illnesses in humans, such as bloody diarrhea and hemolytic uremic syndrome.
- The most well-known strain of EHEC is E. coli O157:H7, which is responsible for this specific outbreak.
From UpToDate:
Escherichia coli that contain genes encoding Shiga toxins 1 and/or 2 are important human pathogens; these are referred to as Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC). Some strains cause severe disease including painful bloody diarrhea, as well as hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) in some cases. STEC with high risk for development of associated HUS include all E. coli O157:H7 and any non-O157 STEC containing a gene encoding Shiga toxin 2.
Read more:
- https://schaechter.asmblog.org/schaechter/2020/06/touch-tone-transcription-a-pathogens-sense-of-touch.html
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