[Cecily]

Originally Posted by Ravager [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Tired of these illiterate millennials using the wrong words. "Toxic" means poisonous. There's nothing poisonous about being an "asshole" which is the word you should be using. Pick up a book instead of a cellphone, douchebags.


I'm sorry if I'm being "random".

I've read a book or two on this subject.

The [digestive or] GI tract is a series of hollow organs joined in a long, twisting tube from the mouth to the anus.


Coliforms are bacteria that are always present in the digestive tracts of animals, including humans, and are found in their wastes. They are also found in plant and soil material.


Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria normally live in the intestines of healthy people and animals. Most varieties of E. coli are harmless or cause relatively brief diarrhea. But a few particularly nasty strains, such as E. coli O157:H7, can cause severe abdominal cramps, bloody diarrhea and vomiting.


You may be exposed to E. coli from contaminated water or food — especially raw vegetables and undercooked ground beef. Healthy adults usually recover from infection with E. coli O157:H7 within a week, but young children and older adults have a greater risk of developing a life-threatening form of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome.


Symptoms

Signs and symptoms of E. coli O157:H7 infection typically begin three or four days after exposure to the bacteria, though you may become ill as soon as one day after to more than a week later. Signs and symptoms include:

• Diarrhea, which may range from mild and watery to severe and bloody
• Abdominal cramping, pain or tenderness
• Nausea and vomiting, in some people

Many non-O157 STEC infections are not diagnosed. Patients with more severe illness are generally more likely to seek medical care and to have stool specimens tested to determine the cause of illness. Non-O157 STEC are a diverse group of bacteria that vary in virulence. There are two general types of Shiga toxins, Shiga toxin 1 and Shiga toxin 2. Strains may carry one Shiga toxin or both at the same time. Strains that produce Shiga toxin 2 tend to be more virulent. Even among the more virulent STEC strains, many infections go undiagnosed.
Guidelines to ensure as complete as possible detection and characterization of STEC infections include the following:

• All stools submitted for testing from patients with acute community-acquired diarrhea should be cultured for STEC O157. These stools should be simultaneously assayed for non-O157 STEC with a test that detects Shiga toxins or the genes encoding these toxins.
• Clinical laboratories should report and send E. coli O157 isolates and Shiga toxin-positive samples to state or local public health laboratories as soon as possible for additional characterization.
• Specimens or enrichment broths in which Shiga toxin or STEC are detected, but from which O157 STEC are not recovered should be forwarded as soon as possible to a state or local public health laboratory so that non-O157 STEC can be isolated.
• Often, by the time a patient presents with HUS, the causative STEC can no longer be easily isolated from a stool specimen. For any patient with HUS without a culture-confirmed STEC infection, stool can be sent to a public health laboratory or to CDC through their public health laboraotory for immunomagnetic separation (IMS) techniques that can increase the sensitivity of culture. In addition, with prior approval, serum can be sent through a state public health laboratory to CDC for serological testing for antibodies to some STEC serogroups.

The benefits of adhering to the recommended testing strategy include early diagnosis, improved patient outcome, and detection of infections caused by all STEC serotypes.


All patients with Shiga toxin-positive diarrheal illness or otherwise butthurt should be reported to health departments.

I'm reporting you.