Personal Injury Law

Food poisoning: Is E Coli coming for you?

By Megan Roth

It's a species of bacteria that live in the small intestine. Even if I didn't know that it causes food poisoning, I'd be disgusted (ehk - who wouldn't?)! It's E. Coli - and to be honest folks, even it's name isn't pretty.

E. Coli is a common type of bacteria. It can get into the food we eat, including beef and vegetables. And even though you think the name is disgusting, E. Coli is not the real name for this bacteria. The entire name is Escherichia coli. That's a whole lot of vowels. Five to be more precise. Most people can't say Escherichia so it's shortened to E. Coli. Sort of like a nickname. Remember President Bush? His nickname was G. "D." Dubbya. Yup like E. Coli he has a nickname.

E. Coli is sneaky about what it can do and is known to go from the intestines into the blood stream. If a person has E.Coli in their system it's likely they are having a pretty good fit.

Symptoms of food poisoning include:

1. Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea.
2. Bloody diarrhea or pus in the stool.
3. Stomach that is upset, pain in the abdomen and cramps.
4. A fever that lasts more than 24 hours.
5. Dizziness, rapid heart beat and they may faint.
6. They feel weak, numb and have tingling in the arms, legs and mouth.

The not so bad news is that unlike this Administration that has hung on for eight long miserable years most strains of E. Coli get better in a few days; even without treatment.

Escherichia coli (abbreviated as E. coli) are a large and diverse group of bacteria. Although most strains of E. coli are harmless, others can make you sick. Some kinds of E. coli can cause diarrhea, while others cause urinary tract infections, respiratory illness and pneumonia, and other illnesses. Still other kinds of E. coli are used as markers for water contamination—so you might hear about E. coli being found in drinking water, which are not themselves harmful, but indicate the water is contaminated. It does get a bit confusing—even to microbiologists.

The Center for Disease Control, What is Escherichia coli?

If you're sitting around with nothing to do and want to know more about E. Coli visit the CDC and do a search for Escherichia coli.

Later in this series I'll talk more about what you should do if you get food poisoning and have to bring a claim against the store or dive that sold you the food.

Full post as published by Des Moines Personal Injury Lawyer on November 08, 2008 (boomark / email).