Oklahoma E. coli Outbreak Linked to Well Water

Pat's Note: This is being reported as the US's worst ever outbreak.

Reports vary widely, but this seems a fair summary.

http://www.newsinferno.com/archives/3747


Oklahoma E. coli Outbreak Linked to Well Water
Date Published: Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008

The Associated Press reported over the weekend that bacterial
contamination has been found in well water at Oklahoma’s Country
Cottage restaurant. The restaurant has been linked to an E. coli
outbreak that killed one man and sickened many dozens. Department of
Environmental Quality spokeswoman Skylar McElhaney reported that
additional tests are needed to determine if the E.coli found in the
water includes the same strain implicated in the outbreak. “While we
cannot say this is the source of the outbreak, we also cannot rule it
out,” McElhaney said.

The outbreak connected to Country Cottage has sickened about 116
people; approximately 50 required hospitalization, health officials
said. Chad Ingle, 26, is the young man who died last Sunday, one week
after eating at the restaurant. Ingle was discharged from Tulsa’s St.
Francis Hospital the prior Friday after becoming sick that Wednesday;
he returned to the hospital the following morning when his condition
worsened and died soon after. Several children have needed dialysis
treatment due to kidney failure. Recent studies have found that some
children who suffered severe cases of E. coli developed health
problems later in life, such as kidney problems, high blood pressure,
and kidney failure; the health problems appeared as late as 10 to 20
years later.

According to the AP, McElhaney said samples tested were from the
restaurant property and there is no evidence that residents’ water is
contaminated. Larry Weatherford, a spokesman for the Oklahoma State
Department of Health, said officials are not sure test results will be
received, but it could be within 72 hours, but more open items are
anticipated. “We see the well results as one piece of the puzzle and
it’s my understanding that they (the restaurant) were only on well
water for two hours of one day,” he said. The exact cause of the
contamination remains unknown; however, sewer leaks, runoff from
agricultural waste, and improper well maintenance and disinfection are
common causes of this type of bacterial contamination.

Some strains of Escherichia coli, including those linked to food
poisoning, such as E coli O157:H7, are very serious and can cause
fatal blood poisoning, cystitis, deadly septicemia, and death. In food
poisoning outbreaks involving E. Coli, the deadly strain O157:H7 is
generally always the culprit. In the US, E. coli is the leading cause
of food-borne illness, with about 73,000 people infected and 61 people
dying from E. coli annually; last year, over 22 million pounds of beef
and vegetables were recalled due to E. coli outbreaks. Scientists have
expressed serious concern that infections from antibiotic resistant E.
coli bacteria are spreading into the greater population and several
countries also now report cases of antibiotic-resistant E. coli.

We have long been reporting that, in addition to the spread of E. coli
and the growing resistance of the infection to traditional
medications, emerging data confirms that the negative health effects
of E. coli can remain for months and years. It was believed that once
we recover from a food-related contamination that we are healed and
the illness is gone; however, recent research reveals these illnesses
can have long-term, lasting effects that can either linger for months
or years or can show up months or years after the original illness was
seemingly resolved.

--
Regards
Pat Gardiner
Release the results of testing British pigs for MRSA and C.Diff now!
www.go-self-sufficient.com  and http://animal-epidemics.blogspot.com/
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