According to new research from The University of Arizona in Tucson, bacteria acquired up to 90 percent of their genetic material from distantly related bacteria species. The finding has important biomedical implications because lateral gene transfer is the way many pathogenic bacteria pick up antibiotic resistance or become more virulent.
“To maintain effective treatments
First Coast News in Jacksonville reports that Shannon Smowton of Winter Haven, Florida, is slowly recovering at the Brooks Rehabilitation Hospital in Jacksonville. She was released earlier from the hospital where she, along with 30 other people, were diagnosed as having suffered from the recent E. coli outbreaks in Central Florida.
“I was encouraging
LSU AgCenter experts say it’s important to remember the importance of good hygiene in preventing the spread of diseases, including proper hand washing, particularly before eating but also in a variety of other situations.
Hand washing is especially important for people to use and avoid contracting E. coli, or Escherichia coli – the disease
Petting zoos and animal exhibitions are a key attraction at many fairs, festivals, carnivals, and farm markets. Although they may appear generally harmless, they can carry disease-causing organisms – some of which cause diarrhea and other gastrointestinal symptoms in humans.
Generally, disease-causing organisms of concern are passed along from three sources — blood, saliva and
Kayla Nicole Sutter’s death in March was once thought to be linked to the recent E. coli outbreak in Central Florida because she had visited the same petting zoo at the Florida Strawberry Festival in Plant City that was related to several cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome, a potentially fatal kidney disease.
But the
As the St. Petersburg Times reported today, Marler Clark is representing an Orlando resident who contracted an E. coli infection after attending the Central Florida State Fair in Orlando, as well as Diana Walters, 48, who became ill with the symptoms of E. coli infection six days after visiting an Ag-Venture Farms petting zoo at
Group Health researchers in the May issue of the Journal of Infectious Diseases found that E. coli bacteremia may affect as many as 53,000 non-institutionalized people, aged 65 and older, each year.
“E. coli is a less serious problem in the urinary tract, but if it spreads to the bloodstream it causes bacteremia, which can
Many diseases carried from animals to humans show no signs in the animal but can be potentially fatal to humans, such as ringworm, cat scratch fever, bacterial diarrhea, and E coli. All of these diseases can be prevented by common sanitary practices, especially hand-washing.
In the case of E. coli, most forms of the bacteria
With media attention on product recalls due to potential contamination with such bacteria and viruses as E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella, and hepatitis A and outbreaks of illnesses caused by these pathogens comes consumers’ need to know about foodborne pathogens. Marler Clark re-launched its Web site about foodborne illness, www.foodborneillness.com, in mid-April.
The
Extra caution has been enforced recently by reports of an outbreak of E. coli traced to fairs in Florida and involving mostly children. It never hurts to be safe, and one way to do that, according to all the doctors and veterinarians questioned, is extremely simple and very basic: wash your hands after any and