IN MINUTES News and events — visually

Evil bacteria
The current E. coli outbreak is showing no signs of abating, with 365 new cases confirmed on Wednesday alone, and has
scientists scrambling to find the source. German officials initially pointed to cucumbers from Spain, but further tests
showed that those vegetables, while contaminated, did not cause the outbreak. Officials are still warning all Germans to 1
TONGUE

PHARYNX

ESOPHAGUS

E. coli-contaminated
food is consumed.
Symptoms
of E. coli
It can take
anywhere from
12 hrs — 10
days for a
person to
become ill.
• Fever
avoid eating raw cucumbers, tomatoes or lettuce. Rare strain of E. coli can be deadly • Vomiting
Bacteria enters the • Stomach
Called 0104, this strain produces Shiga toxins, which can cramps
E. coli has been responsible for a large number of cause haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), a disease that
damages the kidneys and in some cases results in death.
2 digestive tract.
Toxins enter the
• Diarrhea (may
food contamination outbreaks Canada. bloodstream and
become bloody)
KIDNEYS destroy red blood
Sept. 22, 2004: Contaminated Nov. 26, 2002: Salads (behind intestines) cells.
ground beef in Calgary sickens and sandwiches Damaged red blood
29 in Calgary in less than a week prepared at a
Charlottetown hospital
3 cells cannot travel
through veins properly LIVER
May 2000: In the worst case
are believed respon- and get caught in small veins.
of water contamination in This commonly occurs
July 27, 2004: 25 sible for an E. coli
Canadian history, seven in the kidneys. STOMACH
people fall ill in outbreak that killed
people died and more than Properly
Ontario after eating one person and made
2,300 fell ill in Walkerton, KIDNEY functioning
tainted meat at least 11 others sick. kidneys are
Ont., after a deadly strain of
E.coli polluted the town’s needed to
drinking water. remove
flulids and
In 2002, a judicial inquiry into waste
INTESTINES
the contamination says the from the
tragedy could have been body Spreading
E. coli
prevented by the Ontario
Poor handwash-
government and the region’s ing and
public utilities managers. DAMAGED improper food
RED
BLOOD handling can
Nov. 19, 1999: Tainted salmon from CELLS lead to the
October 2005: Water infected with E. coli GLOMERUU spread of E. coli.
Surrey infects almost 100 B.C.
residents, with 1/3 of the victims leads the Ontario government to evacuate
about 1,100 residents of Kashechewan to DNA
requiring hospital treatment.
Ottawa, Sudbury, Cochrane, Timmins,
Peterborough and Sault Ste. Marie. CYTOPLASM

CELL MEMBRANE ns)

cro
CLOGGED (mi
U.S. researchers have found that high-grain diets make E. coli more VEINS m
3µ
potent. When cattle are fattened on grain, their digestive tracts become
Tiny filters in the kidney
unusually acidic and kill off most of the E. coli. But the bacteria that survive are
those that have adapted themselves to an acidic environment. This is a major
4 called glomeruli can get FLAGELLUM
clogged and hinder

The E. coli
problem for human health because our first line of defense is the acidity of our own kidney function. In severe
digestive juices. Acid-resistant feedlot bacteria can survive our gastric juices in cases, the kidney can be
sufficient number to make us ill. permanently damaged or
By contrast, the E. coli from grass-fed cattle remains sensitive to acid and is quickly destroyed in our stomachs.
death can occur.
bacterium
SUSAN BATSFORD, GRAPHICS EDITOR, TWITTER @SBATS1; INFOGRAPHIC BY TARA MARTIN/QMI AGENCY