Pathogens

The E. coli strain that infected thousands in Germany, killing more than three dozen, has now been scrutinized by researchers who say the bug might have been so deadly because it combines the powers of two other types of E.coli — enabling it both to stick fast to the inside of the gut and to release a deadly toxin. This type of bacteria’s “stickiness” might abet the toxin’s absorption, leading to the unusually high number of cases of hemolytic-uremic syndrome, a potentially fatal kidney disorder, they report.

The E. coli strain that infected thousands in Germany, killing more than three dozen, has now been scrutinized by researchers who say the bug might have been so deadly because it combines the powers of two other types of E.coli — enabling it both to stick fast to the inside of the gut and to release a deadly toxin. This type of bacteria’s “stickiness” might abet the toxin’s absorption, leading to the unusually high number of cases of hemolytic-uremic syndrome, a potentially fatal kidney disorder, they report.

As the scope of the nationwide salmonella outbreak expanded late last month, farmers market vendors reported rushes on locally produced eggs and people with backyard flocks were sitting smug. But food safety experts say consumers shouldn't jump to the conclusion that locally produced eggs are any safer than eggs from large commercial suppliers. "Salmonella and chickens go together," says Casey Barton Behravesh, a veterinary epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's division of food-borne, water-borne and environmental disease.

Food-borne illnesses: how prevalent are they? Roughly 48 million Americans – or 1 in 6 – get sick and about 3,000 die from some type of food-borne illness each year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. Reports published Wednesday in Emerging Infectious Diseases also provide a picture of which pathogens cause the most illnesses. Salmonella tops the list for hospitalizations and deaths. Read the CDC reports here for the full list of pathogens. Many recent food recalls can be blamed on salmonella and other pathogens, most notably the egg scare that recalled millions of eggs nationwide in August.

Food-borne illnesses: how prevalent are they? Roughly 48 million Americans – or 1 in 6 – get sick and about 3,000 die from some type of food-borne illness each year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. Reports published Wednesday in Emerging Infectious Diseases also provide a picture of which pathogens cause the most illnesses. Salmonella tops the list for hospitalizations and deaths. Read the CDC reports here for the full list of pathogens. Many recent food recalls can be blamed on salmonella and other pathogens, most notably the egg scare that recalled millions of eggs nationwide in August.

In the search for chemical agents to battle sexually transmitted diseases, scientists are following a number of novel approaches. Some of the products in the research pipeline include: * ReProtect, a Baltimore firm, is developing a gel that would create an environment inhospitable to HIV when applied in the vagina. The product, called BufferGel, is also designed to create a barrier that can inhibit the transmission of bacteria and viruses into vaginal tissue.

That the United States is discussing the use of fungi to eradicate marijuana, coca and opium poppy plants in Colombia (Aug. 30) looks like offensive biological warfare to me. The 1925 Geneva Protocol forbids biological methods of warfare, and in 1969 Richard Nixon issued a presidential declaration on ending the U.S. biological weapons program. National stocks of such weapons were supposedly destroyed by 1972. The U.S. and United Nations have severely criticized Iraq and Saddam Hussein for preparing biological weapons, including wheat smut rust, which makes grain unsuited for consumption.

Long after the painful stomach cramps and bloody diarrhea associated with tainted food are over, many people suffer long-term health effects, mostly unrecognized, that are the result of food-borne pathogens. These lingering effects -- premature death, paralysis, kidney failure and a lifetime of seizures or mental disability -- may cause more disability, lost productivity, doctor visits and hospitalizations than the acute illnesses that follow exposure to a food-borne toxin. A pair of reports released this week by the Center for Foodborne Illness Research & Prevention shed some light on this issue.

A respected U.S. biologist is before a Texas court on no fewer than 68 charges that could land him $17 million in fines and a 469-year prison sentence. Has the FBI finally nabbed the anthrax attacker? No. Dr. Thomas Butler reported this year that 30 vials of the bacterium that causes bubonic plague were missing from his laboratory at Texas Tech University. Butler may well have violated pathogen-reporting laws.

Landfills, with the tendency to belch noxious greenhouse gases, have long gotten a bad rap from environmentalists. But now several clean-power technology companies believe waste can be a source of environmentally friendly energy. FlexEnergy, an Irvine company, showed off a pilot generator Thursday that converts previously unusable methane gas seeping from a Riverside County landfill into 100 kilowatts of electricity. That could be used to help run the sprawling landfill operations or light up more than 100 homes.

Health testing of California beaches has been extended for another year, giving temporary relief to the state program to protect swimmers from contaminated ocean water. The State Water Resources Control Board voted Tuesday to spend $984,000 in state bond money to continue testing for pathogens at hundreds of beaches through 2011. Beach water-quality monitoring has been in jeopardy because of state and county budget cuts. A Times investigation this summer found that testing had sunk to its lowest level in more than a decade, leading to fewer beach closures and advisories and putting swimmers, surfers and divers at a greater risk of getting sick.

As the scope of the nationwide salmonella outbreak expanded late last month, farmers market vendors reported rushes on locally produced eggs and people with backyard flocks were sitting smug. But food safety experts say consumers shouldn't jump to the conclusion that locally produced eggs are any safer than eggs from large commercial suppliers. "Salmonella and chickens go together," says Casey Barton Behravesh, a veterinary epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's division of food-borne, water-borne and environmental disease.

Long after the painful stomach cramps and bloody diarrhea associated with tainted food are over, many people suffer long-term health effects, mostly unrecognized, that are the result of food-borne pathogens. These lingering effects -- premature death, paralysis, kidney failure and a lifetime of seizures or mental disability -- may cause more disability, lost productivity, doctor visits and hospitalizations than the acute illnesses that follow exposure to a food-borne toxin. A pair of reports released this week by the Center for Foodborne Illness Research & Prevention shed some light on this issue.

In the spring of 2004, five years before pistachios grown in the San Joaquin Valley became tainted with salmonella, health investigators were hunting for the same deadly bacteria in the same stretch of our state -- this time in the almond orchards. The microbe hadn't struck just any almond grower: The outbreak took place at Paramount Farms, the biggest grower of nuts and citrus in the nation, a behemoth operation unmatched in the precision and cleanliness of its fields and processing plants.

Researchers working in Gabon and Congo have identified three species of fruit bat as the long-sought reservoirs of one of the deadliest known human pathogens, the Ebola virus. The team tested more than 1,000 bats and other animals before tracing the virus to fruit bats, which are commonly eaten by people in Central Africa, according to a report in today's issue of the journal Nature. Researchers found minute genetic traces of the virus in 22.6% of the bats tested.

The floodwaters that spilled into New Orleans contain extremely high levels of sewage-borne bacteria, posing an immediate health threat to people who remain in the city, according to data released Wednesday by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Over the last year, the Obama administration has aggressively pushed a $433-million plan to buy an experimental smallpox drug, despite uncertainty over whether it is needed or will work. Senior officials have taken unusual steps to secure the contract for New York-based Siga Technologies Inc., whose controlling shareholder is billionaire Ronald O. Perelman, one of the world's richest men and a longtime Democratic Party donor. When Siga complained that contracting specialists at the Department of Health and Human Services were resisting the company's financial demands, senior officials replaced the government's lead negotiator for the deal, interviews and documents show.

Making the genetic codes of dangerous pathogens a secret will not save anyone from bioterrorism and may make the population vulnerable to attacks from Mother Nature, scientists said Thursday. Scientists now freely share information on the genomes of all sorts of bacteria and viruses, many of them potential biowarfare agents, and that should continue, the National Research Council committee said.