10 Michigan State students sickened with persistent bloody diarrhea; 7 still in hospital, doc says it 'isn't serious'
Six weeks after an outbreak of E. coli O157 associated with food service at the University of Guelph – will a report ever be issued – Michigan State University officials were told on Monday Sept. 15, 2008, that 10 students had become ill and sought help over the past several days for persistent symptoms of bloody diarrhea.
University Physician Beth Alexander said the illness was likely caused by a certain strain of E. coli and that although only two of the cases have been linked to the same strain of bacteria, the remaining eight cases could be linked within the week..jpg)
Alexander added,
“Generally, the infection isn’t serious. It’s usually caused by food or water that has been contaminated with that bacteria.”
I’m not sure at what point shiga-toxin producing E. coli and its tell-tale bloody diarrhea isn’t serious. The people of Locust Grove, OK, with their 314 illnesses, including 65 children, and one death, related to an outbreak of E. coli O111 probably think it is serious. So do the kids with blood coming out of their asses in Michigan.
Investigators are determining where and when the students ate based on swipes of their MSU ID cards in campus cafeterias and eateries. That information should be available today and will help determine whether something exists in the food supply that may still be a threat.
Food safety information: rapid, reliable, repeated and relevant
Dr. Carol Byrd-Bredbenner of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and colleagues reported in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association that many college students engaged in eating behaviors that could make them sick.
.jpg)
Based on surveys of 4,343 students at 21 colleges and universities across the U.S., 53 percent reported eating raw homemade cookie dough (which contains uncooked eggs), 33 percent said they ate fried eggs with soft or runny yolks, 29 percent ate sushi, and 28 percent consumed raw sprouts. Eleven percent said they ate raw oysters, clams or mussels, and 7 percent said they ate pink hamburger.
I won't begin to get into all the faults with these kinds of measures or the near futility of drawing any meaningful conclusions from self-reported surveys.
Even so, the authors figured that,
"current food safety education efforts may not provide the information and/or motivation needed to compel individuals to change their consumption levels of risky foods. … Health professionals should focus creative efforts on developing safe food consumption behaviors in this group and thereby help safeguard the health of this population and enable them to fulfill the role of protecting the health of their future families."
Don't eat poop.
Villanova students have upset stomachs, basketball team gets upset
Officials also say that they don't think a common food vehicle is involved as ill students live both on campus and off. Maybe noro was one of the reasons for the No. 18 team's loss at home to Notre Dame yesterday: no fan support because everybody was on the toilet?
