NCERT Basics for UPSC & Other Civil Services Exams
Why in News?
ONE PERSON has died and10 have been hospitalized in the US due to an E.coli infection after eating McDonald’s burgers. The outbreak is restricted to10 states in the United States.
- coli:
- Coli is a group of bacteria that can cause infections in your gut (GI tract), urinary tract and other parts of your body.
- Most of the time, it can live in your gut without hurting you. But some strains can make you sick with watery diarrhea, vomiting and a fever. Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) is most likely to cause severe illness
Spread:
- It spreads through contaminated food and water. “We usually see cases during the summer and rainy seasons, when there is an increase in gastro intestinalin fections in general.
- “Among gastrointestinal and urinary tract infections, E.coli is one of the most common pathogens.”
- However, E.coli, which causes gastro intestinal symptoms, is not uncommon in India.
How common are E.coli infections?
- More than 500 outbreaks of diarrhoeal diseases were reported across India in 2023 , according to the National Centre for Disease Control.
- coli is the most common bacteria isolated from patient samples, according to the latest report of ICMR’s Antimicrobial Surveillance Network.
- The pathogen was found in 23.19% of all types of patient samples from tertiary care hospitals across India, where the surveillance is carried out.
- The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is working on creating a network of 34 microbiology labs across the country that will test food products for 10 pathogens, including E.coli, salmonella, and listeria.
- Tests for microbial contamination were missing from most state food safety laboratories in the country.
Symptoms:
- The most common symptoms of E.coli infection include fever of more than 102 degree F, persistent diarrhoea, bloody diarrhoea, and vomiting.
- The main problem, however, is dehydration due to the inabil ity of the patient to retain water and fluids.
- In very few cases, people may get acute kidney injury.
How is it treated?
- coli is a bacterial infection for which antibiotics are prescribed.
- For example, E.coli’s susceptibility to even strong antibiotics, such as carbapenem, has been on the decline, reducing from 81.4% in 2017 to 62.7% in 2023 to one type of medicine in this category.
