Public health officials are urging residents to watch what
they’re eating in the midst of a national E. coli outbreak linked
to raw spinach possibly packaged in San Juan Bautista.
Public health officials are urging residents to watch what they’re eating in the midst of a national E. coli outbreak linked to raw spinach possibly packaged in San Juan Bautista.
“There are always a number of things you can and should do to protect yourself,” said Kathy Boulware, the supervising public health nurse in San Benito County, who follows communicable disease.
The FDA issued an advisory against eating fresh or packaged spinach last week, after 109 cases of E. coli were reported across 19 states. Sixteen of these cases are very severe and one in Wisconsin has resulted in death. The disease was linked to San Juan-based Natural Selection Foods. Natural Selection works with more than 30 brands throughout the country, including easily recognizable names like Earthbound Farm, Sysco, Dole, Trader Joe’s and Ready-Pac.
It has not yet been
determined if local spinach is the cause of the outbreak, or if spinach going through Natural Selection’s packing process was already contaminated, but the company has instated a voluntary recall. Consumers should throw out spinach if the “Best If Used By” dates are between Aug. 17 and Oct. 1.
There are hundred of strains of E. coli – most are harmless and some are even found in most healthy humans. But E. coli 0157:H7, the strain detected in spinach that went through Natural Selection, is the most toxic of the strains and can cause illness or death in humans.
“E. coli lives in the intestines of cows, so usually it contaminates things that have been in contact with manure,” Boulware said. “You can get it in water or on your hands, and then ingest it.”
Typically E. coli is associated with undercooked or spoiled meat products, but unpasteurized milk or juice as well as contaminated swimming spots have caused problems in the past.
Symptoms manifest after the bacteria has had time to incubate in its host’s system, anywhere from a few hours to several days after exposure. The infection causes severe, bloody diarrhea, and sometimes a slight fever. At the first sign of these symptoms, the infected person should go to the doctor, and may have to specifically request an E. coli test.
“Any time you have bloody stool, you need to go to your health care provider immediately,” Boulware said, “because there are a lot of other things that can cause that.”
Most E. coli cases clear up on their own within a few days without treatment, as long as the infected person is reasonably healthy and hasn’t been exposed to inordinate amounts of the bacteria.
“One thing you don’t want to do is take something to stop the diarrhea, because that’s the body’s way of trying to purge,” Boulware said. “But you do want to drink plenty of fluids to replace the fluids you lose.”
In between 2 and 7 percent of all cases, particularly among young children and the elderly, the infection may worsen and become hemolytic uremic syndrome. According to Public Health, HUS is the principal cause of acute kidney failure in children in the United States, and most cases of HUS are caused by E. coli.
About one-third of HUS patients have abnormal kidney function many years later, and a few require long-term dialysis. Another 8 percent of HUS patients have other lifelong complications, such as high blood pressure, seizures, blindness, paralysis and the effects of having part of their bowel removed.Â
Boulware said she did not believe San Benito County has ever been part of a serious E. coli outbreak, and that a case had not been reported in several years. This could be because E. coli symptoms can be mistaken for regular food poisoning or the flu, and infected people get over it before they think to be tested.
The Public Health Department is distributing health alerts to local physicians, detailing what to look for when E. coli is suspected, as well as how to avoid infection. These tips include cooking meat thoroughly, washing raw vegetables, keeping raw meats away from ready-to-serve foods in the refrigerator and making sure not to swallow too much water when swimming. Above all, stay away from fresh and packaged spinach, as the FDA advises, until the agency gives the all-clear.
“Our food today is lot safer than it has ever been in the history of mankind,” said County Supervisor Anthony Botelho, whose district includes San Juan. Botelho is also an apple grower. “But unfortunately you’re going to have an outbreak every once in a while. It’s just the reality of nature.”
For more information visit the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service Web site at www.fsis.usda.gov.
