Germany steps up hunt for deadly E.coli source – Yahoo! News.
Where do you find Escherichia coli? This is the bacterium most associated with feces.
A particularly virulent strain, (Shiga toxin producer) which is associated with severe food poisoning and sometimes death, is causing quite a panic in Europe.
Pharmer hopes that the spread of this organism, (which is transmitted in the manner of many other organisms associated with food poisoning) will inspire people to wash their hands after going to the bathroom, and before food handling and preparation.
It might even inspire those in Europe and elsewhere to attend to the hygiene in their hospitals. This would benefit ALL the patients.
We have previously seen governmental wild goose chases looking for the source of pathogenic organisms where vegetables and food products are grown. Remember the salsa scare? It would be advisable for people to spend their effort attending to proper food preparation and personal hygiene. Hopefully they can still afford the soap and water after the governments have burned their resources in futile attempts to track the organisms, and destroyed massive quantities of good food in the process.
