A new research says that the bacteria called E. coli, which is found in many types of meat products, might be causing a lot of bladder infections each year in the United States.
Lance Price and Cindy Liu from the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health made a new technique to identify where E. coli infections come from. With this method, they estimated that around half a million to six hundred forty thousand people living in America each year get urinary tract infections caused by E. coli bacteria found in food.
We all know that food contaminated by E. coli can cause diarrhea, but it may surprise you to learn that food-borne E. coli can even give you a urinary tract infection! A professor and researcher named Price just found out that harmful E. coli bacteria in raw meat could be making people really sick when they eat the infected food. So it’s important to be careful with the food we put in our bodies – especially raw meat!
E. coli bacteria causes most urinary tract infections (UTIs) each year, with an estimate of up to 85%. Women are more likely to get these UTIs, which can be anything from a simple bladder infection to a much more serious infection of the bloodstream.
E. coli are germs that can be found in some animals and people, including the animals raised to become meat in the United States. If these animals are not carefully prepared before they turn into meat products, the E. coli bacteria living inside their stomachs can spread from the animal to the meat – putting people who eat it at risk of becoming infected by the bacteria.
Information from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) shows that most raw meats have germs, like E. coli. Until now, only certain types of E. coli causing diarrhea were taken really seriously in America, but this new research implies that other types can be dangerous too.
In this study, scientists got raw chicken, turkey and pork from major grocery stores in Flagstaff. Then they looked closely at these meats to find E. coli bacteria. At the same time, researchers who worked for the Pathogen and Microbiome Institute studied urine and blood from people who had urinary tract infections at a Flagstaff Medical Center hospital.
The research team studied the genetic material of E. coli from meat and from people. From this, they found pieces of genetic code in the E. coli that were special to either animals or humans. Lastly, they created a new way to tell the difference between E. coli from animals or humans.
Researchers did an experiment to find out if contaminated meat could cause urinary tract infections, and the results showed that about 8% of such infections in Flagstaff were probably caused by eating contaminated meat.
According to a new research, lots of people in the United States might be getting sick with Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) every year because they ate food with E. coli bacteria.
Paul Keim, a professor of microbiology from Northern Arizona University and the co-author of the study said that their revolutionary research design was really helpful. They had done intensive tests on food in an isolated community and worked with its major healthcare provider. The combination of this research modeling and advance genetic technology could unite food sources with health issues. Their final results will help people all over the world.
Researchers have found that some types of E. coli can not only cause bladder infections but also severe kidney and blood infections, which can be deadly if they are not treated quickly. It is thought that between 36,000 to 40,000 people in the U.S. die each year due to those types of E. coli caught through food, though we do not know exactly how many cases come from this source.
Most people don’t pay much attention to bladder infections, but they are actually really important. If you’re over 55 or have a serious condition like cancer or transplants, then getting a bladder infection can lead to more dangerous illnesses like blood infections. Even if you’re young and healthy, it’s still possible for a bladder infection to turn into something more serious.
The study indicates that the government and companies need to be more attentive when it comes to potentially dangerous germs in food, specifically raw meat sold in stores all over the US. To limit their risk of coming into contact with contaminated food, people can take extra precautionary steps while cooking or handling these meats like washing their hands often and using specific surfaces for preparing each type of food (raw Vs cooked).
A group of researchers from several centers have come together to work on a project called “Using source-associated mobile genetic elements to identify zoonotic extraintestinal E. coli infections” and published it online in the journal One Health. Northern Arizona University helped with analyzing the E. coli bacterium, and Flagstaff Medical Center (under the former lab manager Lori Gauld) contributed by collecting UTI E.coli specimens to study. The bioinformatic analysis that led to the conclusion was done at George Washington University.
