It is that time of the year again summer cookouts, burgers, hot dogs, cold drinks, friends, hot weather (unless you live on the east coast this year, which it is more like Seattle!) mayo left outside, multi state outbreaks of bug x, wait what?We all love it its the time of the year when we shine as microbiologists! This is the time when our friends come to us with the pertinent questions about why their tummies are upset and we can look like the heroes.
All of this of course is in relation to the multi-state outbreak of E.coli O157:H7 in Nestle Cookie Dough, which of course is interesting because it is not, although not commonl. We all know our normal Escherichia coli the lovable muti-faceted organism that is highly adaptable and has contributed so much to science over the years. So a little background on this bug for those of you who dont know.....
O157 is a Shiga toxin producing E.coli (STEC) which causes hemorrhagic diarrhea and the H7 serotype include extreme abdominal cramps, and non-fever. Each year an estimated 73,000 cases are reported with 60 deaths associated usually caused by HUS, which leads to renal failure. The number can be skewed however, as most clinical laboratories do not screen for O157 and therefore may be underreported.
The traditional screening method for E.coli 0157 is____________ come on all you microbiologists out there this is your chance to shine lets see it. Comment, tell all about how your lab isolates 0157! End of today I will continue on with an update for this article, for now im going streaking!!!!! (microbiologist humor laugh its ok!)
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3 comments:
nice blurb! In my lab we basically use a sorbitol mac agar
yea that is essentially the main screening method I have heard of but then that does not cover the non 0157's that carry shiga toxins!
you can also perform Shiga Toxin detection
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