In article .com>,
"Robert1" > wrote:

-L. wrote:
> Robert1 wrote:
> > -L. wrote:
> > > They will never come out and say so, but it is far more likely that the
> > > virulent E. coli *is* from other humans. What makes me sick won't
> > > necessarily make *you* sick if it is an endemic strain in your system.
> > > The media will never report it as so, because A.) There is no way to
> > > track which workers worked in which fields and shit there and B.) It
> > > would be "politically incorrect" to do so, since the government (and
> > > those who contribute to their re-election funds) has interest in
> > > keeping cheap, foreign labor. It's much easier to blame cows.
> >
> > Not true with Ecoli 0157. It is pathogenic and everyone gets sick if
> > they have it.
>
> Not true. See:
>
> Epidemiol Infect. 2004 Oct;132(5):915-9. Asymptomatic carriage of
> verocytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli O157 in farm workers in
> Northern Italy.
>
> * Silvestro L,
> * Caputo M,
> * Blancato S,
> * Decastelli L,
> * Fioravanti A,
> * Tozzoli R,
> * Morabito S,
> * Caprioli A.
>
> HTH,
> -L.

Couple of points.

They took farm workers and tested their stools and found some positive
for 0157. They checked to see if they had symptoms. They didn't. This
does not prove a chronic carrier state. They postulated CHRONIC
EXPOSURE to 0157 as the cause of this asymptomatic state. They did not
go back and re culture over time in order to prove chronicity. They are
basically speculating.

The other most basic point to all of this is the implication that 0157
is prevalent and many chronic carrier cases exist out there. If 1% of
all farm workers have 0157 then there would be cases every day out
there of people coming down with symptomatic 0157 because of such
exposure to produce. There isn't. Farm workers have not changed
anything over the years and if they have it's been to the better in
limiting exposure to Ecoli. Working conditions have actually improved,
believe it or not with contracts and unions.

The bottom line to all of this is there is no chronic positives being
picked up on routine stool cultures in clinical use. Such a high
carrier rate of 1% would carry on to the general population and it
isn't there. There is no increase in HUS with distinct laboratory
parameters.
I can only recall of one verified case all these past years at our
institution. There is a nation wide alert with all eyes on this
epidemic. The number of cultures being processed for all diarrhea cases
is huge. Ecoli 0157 is just not out there. It is very easy to culture
and the cases you cited are good examples on how easy it is to find.

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One point of disagreement:
If an illegal immigrant had E-coli and handled lots of vegetables during a
week, it's unlikely that he would spread the E-coli to the people that
later ate those vegetables since most companies do a great job of
processing the vegetables. In this case, it's very possible that the
company failed to do a great job related to processing the vegetables that
caused some people to develop E-coli. The investigators are now blaming
the problem on cattle. That means they can avoid forcing illegal
immigrants to have E-coli tests. That's a wise move since they can avoid
being called racists for forcing illegal immigrants to have E-coli tests.
Jason
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