Coli

Within days of the E.coli outbreak in Germany that officially ended this week, scientists at the University of Maryland Institute for Genome Sciences began cracking the genomic code of the bacteria responsible for infecting thousands and killing dozens. Information about all the genes that make up the bacteria from these scientists and others around the globe was soon offered online at no cost to doctors treating those infected, possibly saving lives, as well as to epidemiologists looking for the source of the pathogen.

Health officials have linked three cases of potentially fatal E. coli in Maryland to the nationwide outbreak caused by tainted spinach. They're also investigating a possible link in several other cases, including one death. The three cases, confirmed by DNA tests of the bacteria, occurred in children who have all recovered, said Dr. Michelle Gourdine, deputy secretary for public health services at the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Among the pending cases, Gourdine would identify the person who died only as "an elderly resident."

NEW YORK -- Health authorities in Ohio are investigating a death that could be linked to the nationwide outbreak of bacterial illness caused by contaminated spinach from California's coastal valley, top Food and Drug Administration officials said yesterday. Federal public health authorities cannot confirm that the Ohio case has a definite association with the outbreak of E. coli illnesses until the state laboratory has completed its examination of the patient's specimens. Ohio authorities then must report the information to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As the summer grilling season reaches its full sizzle, hundreds of scientists and public health officials converged on Baltimore yesterday to discuss a hazard posed by that most all-American of foods -- the hamburger.The bacterial strain known as E. coli 0157 is considered an emerging pathogen, a bug that appeared without warning in 1982. It now causes 20,000 infections and 250 deaths annually in the United States: cases traced to unpasteurized apple juice, contaminated water, raw vegetables and various meats, but mostly to ground beef that is served rare.

Like he does most days, Cindy Allred's sixth-grade son came home from school one afternoon last week, tossed a school flier on the table and talked about his day. The bathrooms were dirty, Allred recalled her son saying, and the kids had been told of a problem with the water. Then she read the flier. "DRINKING WATER WARNING," read the first line of the fluorescent-red flier. "North Harford Middle School water is contaminated with fecal coliform or E. coli. BOIL YOUR WATER BEFORE USING."

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Two high-profile E. coli outbreaks this year have some in the food business wondering - once again - if it's time to go nuclear. For decades, many food safety experts have argued that irradiation - zapping food with high-energy rays to kill microorganisms - could avert hundreds of deaths and perhaps millions of illnesses each year. But for just as long, federal regulators and food retailers have been leery of bringing the technology to market. Despite exhaustive reviews by federal scientists and endorsements by public health and medical groups around the world, irradiation by its very name conjures up images that are anything but wholesome: nuclear fallout, for one. That imagery, combined with some lingering uncertainties about irradiation's effects on food, has helped grass-roots activists make a potent case against it. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved irradiation as a disinfectant for a limited range of foods, including spices and ground beef.

HUMAN BEINGS may think they rule the world, but lesser links in the food chain seem determined to strike back. With scares from tainted meet, fruit, vegetables and even unpasteurized juice, Americans are learning that a safe food supply is not something that can be taken for granted, though the United States has long enjoyed far better protections than most other countries.According to the World Health Organization, food-borne diseases may be 300 to 350 times more prevalent than the reported cases indicate.

He devoted much of his childhood in Africa either to playing sports or watching television, but Boubacar Coly can speak eight languages with ease. He is Muslim by faith but attended Catholic schools much of his life and even a Catholic university for a time. He grew up on a continent where soccer is king, but his heart led him to basketball and the United States. Incongruous as those facts seem, they are mere snapshots of a young man who forged a life in the United States when everyone back in Ziguinchor, Senegal, told him not to leave seven years ago. Factor in three major knee surgeries, two lost seasons of college basketball, a new wife and a reinvigorated career at Morgan State, and it still doesn't cover the journey Coly has taken.

County health officials are analyzing food samples from two area restaurants where an 11-year-old Taneytown girl dined in the 10 days before she died of an illness that is frequently linked to a toxic strain of E. coli bacteria.Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture food safety inspectors are also checking several restaurants in the Hanover, Pa., area that were patronized by the family of Kara L. Staley.Health officials say the tests are a standard precaution, and no evidence exists of an outbreak of food-borne illness.

The outbreak began with symptoms common to many childhood illnesses: diarrhea, cramps and upset stomach. Soon, youngsters were showing up at hospitals across Florida with their kidneys failing and in urgent need of dialysis. Before it was over, 30 people, most of them children, were being treated for illnesses that health investigators blame on a potentially deadly strain of E. coli bacteria carried by animals in a petting zoo exhibit that moved from fair to fair in Florida. Maryland officials, preparing for the carnival and fair season that begins next month, have taken note.