Posts Tagged ‘bacterium’

For an update on the current Salmonella Enteritidis Outbreak visit http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/enteritidis

Enteritidis, can be found on both the outside and inside of eggs that appear normal.  If eggs are eaten raw or undercooked, the bacterium can cause a person to become ill.

Photo: cdc.gov

Salmonella

Eggs, like meat, poultry, milk, and other foods, are safe if they are properly handled.  Shell eggs are the safest when stored in the refrigerator, individually and thoroughly cooked, and eaten immediately.  The larger the number of Salmonella present in the egg, the more likely you could become ill.  Refrigerating eggs prevents Salmonella that may be present on the egg from multiplying.

Cooking reduces the number of bacteria present in an egg; however, an egg with a runny yolk still poses a greater risk when eaten than does a completely cooked egg.  Eggs that have undercooked egg whites and yolks have been linked to outbreaks of infection.  Eggs should be consumed immediately and not kept warm or at room temperature for more than 2 hours.

1. Keep eggs refrgerted at ≤45° F (≤7° C) at all times.
2. Discard cracked or dirty eggs.
3. Wash hands, cooking utensils, and food preparation surfaces with soap and water after contact with raw eggs.
4. Eggs should be cooked until both the white and the yolk are firm and eaten promptly after cooking.
5. Do not keep eggs warm or at room temperature for more than 2 hours.
6. Refrigerate unused or leftover egg-containing foods promptly.
7. Avoid eating raw eggs.
8. Avoid restaurant dishes made with raw or undercooked, unpasteurized eggs.  Restaurants should use pasteurized eggs in any recipe (such as Hollandaise sauce or Caesar salad dressing) that calls for raw eggs.
9. Comsumption of raw or undercooked eggs should be avoided, especially by young children, elderly persons, and persons with weakened immune systems or debilitating illness.

Individuals at risk for getting SalmonellaEnteritidis are the elderly, infants, and those with impaired immune systems. 

Individuals who become infected usually experience fever, abdominal cramps, and diarrhea beginning 12 to 72 hours after consuming a contaminated food or beverage.  The illness usually lasts 4 to 7 days, and most persons recover without antibiotic treatment.  Diarrhea can be severe, and the person may be ill enough to require hospitalization.

Reference: CDC.gov

Typhoid fever is a life-threatening illness caused by the bacterium Salmonella Typhi.  In the United States about 400 cases occur each year, and 75% of these are acquired while traveling internationally.  Typhoid fever is still common in the developing world, where it affects about 21.5 million persons each year.

Typhoid fever can be prevented and can usually be treated with antibiotics. 

Salmonella Typhi lives only in humans.  Persons with typhoid fever carry the bacteria in their bloodstream and intestinal tract.  In addition, a small number of persons, called carriers, recover from typhoid fever but continue to carry the bacteria.  Both ill persons and carriers shed S. Typhi in their stool.

You can get typhoid fever if you eat food or drink beverates that have been handled by a person who is shedding S. Typhi or if sewage contaminated with S. Typhi bacteria gets into the water you use for drinking or washing food.  Therefore, thyphoid fever is more common in areas of the world where handwashing is less frequent and water is likely to be contaminated with sewage.

Only S. Typhi bacteria are eaten or drunk, they multiply and spread into the bloodstream.  The body reacts with fever and other signs and symptoms.

Typhoid fever is common in most parts of the world except in industrialized regions such as the United States, Canada, western Europe, Australia, and Japan.  Therefore, if you are traveling to the developing world, you should consider taking precautions.  Over the past 10 years, travelers from the United States to Asia, Africa, and Latin America have been especially at risk.

Two basic actions can protect you from typhoid fever:

• Avoid risky foods and drinks
• Get vaccinated against typhoid fever.

Watching what you eat and drink when you travel is as important as being vaccinated.  This is because the vaccines are not completely effective. Avoiding risky foods will also help protect you from other illnesses, including travelers’ diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, and hepatitis A.

Even if your symptoms seem to go away, you may still be carrying S. Typhi. If so, the illness could return, or you could pass the disease to other people.  In fact, if you work at a job where you handle food or care for small children, you may be barred legally from going back to work until a doctor has determined that you no longer carry any typhoid bacteria.

Treatment consists of taking the prescribed antibiotics for as long as the doctor has asked you to take them.  Wash your hands carefully with soap and water after using the bathroom, and do not prepare or serve food to other people.  Have your doctor perform a series of stool cultures to ensure that no S. Typhi bacteria remain in your body.

Reference: www.cdc.gov

For the most current updates about typhoid fever visit: www.nc.cdc.gov/travel/content/diseases.aspx#typhoid

August 12, 2010 CDC announced they are collaborating with public health officials in two states and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to investigate an outbreak of Salmonella infections, serotype Typhi.  Salmonella Typhi is the bacterium that causes typhoid fever. 

There has been a total of 7 confirmed and 2 probable individuals infected with a matching strain of Salmonella serotype Typhi since May 25, 2010.  The number of ill persons identified in each state with this strain were California (3 confirmed and 2 probable) and Nevada (4 confirmed).

ADVICE TO COSUMERS:

• Until further notice, do not eat or drink Goya brand frozen mamey fruit pulp.
• Individuals who think they might have become ill from eating frozen mamey fruit pulp should consult their health care provider.

Clinical Features/Signs and Symptoms

Most persons infected with Salmonella Typhi develop high and sustained fever, headache, constipation, malaise, chills, and myalgia 2 to 5 weeks after infection.  Infection is usually diagnosed by a blood culture.  The illness can last from 3 to 4 weeks and infections may be severe or fatal if untreated.  Typhoid fever should be treated with appropriate antimicrobial medications.

To follow this outbreak visit: www.cdc.gov/salmonella/typhoidfever/index.html

Anthrax Information

Anthrax (Greek Άνθραξ for coal) is an acute disease in humans and animals that is caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis and is highly lethal in some forms. Anthrax is one of only a few bacteria that can form long-lived spores. When the bacteria’s life cycle is threatened by factors such as lack of food caused by their host dying or by a change of temperature, the bacteria turn themselves into more or less dormant spores to wait for another host to continue their life cycle.

On breathing, ingesting or getting spores in a cut in the skin, a new host allows these spores to reactivate themselves and multiply in their new host very rapidly. The anthrax spores in soil are very tough and can live many decades and perhaps centuries and are known to occur on all continents except Antarctica. Anthrax most commonly occurs in wild and domestic grass-eating mammals (ruminants) who ingest or breathe in the spores while eating grass. Anthrax can also be caught by humans when they are exposed to dead infected pigs, eat tissue from infected animals, or are exposed to a high density of anthrax spores from an animal’s fur, hide, or wool. Anthrax spores can be grown outside the body and used as a biological weapon. Anthrax cannot spread directly from human to human; but anthrax spores can be transported by human clothing, shoes etc. and if a person dies of anthrax their body can be a very dangerous source of anthrax spores. The word anthrax is the Greek word for coal, the germ’s name is derived from anthrakitis, the Greek word for anthracite, in reference to the black skin lesions victims develop in a cutaneous skin infection.

Anthrax Overview

Anthrax is one of the oldest recorded diseases of grazing animals such as sheep and cattle and is believed to be the Sixth Plague mentioned in the Book of Exodus in the Bible. Anthrax is also mentioned by Greek and Roman authors such as Homer (in The Iliad), Virgil (Georgics), and Hippocrates. Anthrax can also infect humans, usually as the result of coming into contact with infected animal hides, fur, wool (”Woolsorter’s disease”), leather or contaminated soil. Anthrax (”siberian ulcer”) is now fairly rare (a few to no cases per year in the developed world) in humans although it still occasionally occurs in ruminants, such as cattle, sheep, goats, camels, wild buffalo, and antelopes.

Bacillus anthracis bacteria spores are soil-borne and because of their long lifetime they are still present globally and at animal burial sites of anthrax-killed animals for many decades; spores have been known to have reinfected animals over 70 years after burial sites of anthrax-infected animals were disturbed.

Before the last century anthrax infections were a source of many thousands of dead animals and thousands of people dying each year in Europe, Asia and North America. French scientist Louis Pasteur developed the first effective vaccine for anthrax in 1881. Thanks to over a century of animal vaccination programs, sterilization of raw animal waste materials and anthrax eradication programs in North America, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Europe and parts of Africa and Asia anthrax infection is now rare in domestic animals with normally only a few dozen cases reported every year. Anthrax is even rarer in dogs and cats where there was only one documented case in the USA in the last 15 years. Anthrax outbreaks do occur in a few wild animal populations with some regularity. The disease is more common in developing countries without widespread veterinary or human public health programs.

There are 89 known strains of anthrax, the most widely recognized being the virulent Ames strain used in the 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States. The Ames strain is extremely dangerous, though not quite as virulent as the Vollum strain which was successfully developed as a biological weapon during the Second World War, but never used. The Vollum (also incorrectly referred to as Vellum) strain was isolated in 1935 from a cow in Oxfordshire, UK. This is the same strain that was used during the Gruinard bioweapons trials. A variation of Vollum known as “Vollum 1B” was used during the 1960s in the US and UK bioweapon programs. Vollum 1B was isolated from William A. Boyles, a 46-year-old USAMRIID scientist who died in 1951 after being accidentally infected with the Vollum strain. The Sterne strain, named after a South African researcher, is an attenuated strain used as a vaccine.

Anthrax From Wikipedia

For more detailed Anthrax information see the Anthrax wiki on Wikipedia.