STOP Foodborne Illnesses
There have been a rash of food recalls in the past year bringing to light questions that are taking on a new urgency. Just recently, millions of pounds of ground beef were recalled. On January 18, there was a nationwide recall of green beans and garbanzo beans (#10 size cans, 6-7 pounds).On January 21 the Deli Chef Tri-Bean Salad was recalled from some Kroger stores. The list could go on.
Scientists are just now unraveling the long-term problems associated with those individuals who have gotten food poisoning from food contaminated with bacteria such as E.coli or campylobacter - those individuals who did not escape the poison in their foods despite vigorous food recalls.
Findings are cropping up ten to twenty years after the food poisoning episodes. People that were infected with E.coli have described high blood pressure, even full kidney failure in some individuals who survived severe E.coli food poisoning as children, arthritis after a bout of salmonella or shigella and a mysterious paralysis after mild symptoms resulting from a bout of campylobacter poisoning.
These late effects are believed to make up just a small fraction of the nations 76 million annual food poisoning episodes, but does make one question how many more long-term effects are out there caused by the food poisoning episodes that we are not catching or documenting.
This month an organization called STOP (Safe Tables Our Priority) is beginning the first national registry of food-poisoning survivors who have long-term health problems. This is being done in hope that it will provide scientists with health histories to boost much-needed research.
The organization STOP hears more horror stories every week as patients complain about long-term effects experienced after their encounters with foodborne illnesses. Consider Alyssa Chrobuck of Seattle who at age 5 was hospitalized as part of the Jack-in-the-Box hamburger outbreak that 15 years ago this month made the E.coli strain famous. Alyssa is now in college but suffers from high blood pressure, frequent hospitalizations for colon inflammation, endometriosis, and has had her thyroid removed - all conditions unusual for a twenty year old.
The CDC says that foodborne illnesses cause 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths a year. Among the survivors, some long-term complications/consequences are obvious from the outset. Some have required kidney transplants and others have scarred intestines that make digestion and absorption of nutrients difficult.
Currently, some of the best evidence of these long-term consequences comes from the University of Utah which has long tracked children with E. coli. About ten percent of E. coli sufferers develop a life-threatening complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) - a condition that causes kidneys and other organs to fail.
Dr. Andrew Pavia, the pediatric disease chief at the University of Utah states that he doesn’t want to leave the message that everyone who had symptoms is in trouble. But, we wonder, just how many are really in trouble?
Other proven long-term consequences include:
- About 1 in 1,000 sufferers from campylobacter infection, a diarrhea-causing infection spread by raw poultry, develop Guillain-Barre syndrome a month or so later.
- A small number of people develop reactive arthritis six months or so after a salmonella infection. It can cause joint pain, eye inflammation and occasionally, painful urination. Certain strains of shigella and yersinia bacteria also trigger reactive arthritis and are also causes of foodborne illness.
- Examples keep cropping up of problems resulting years after bouts of food poisoning. Take for example a woman who had a severe bout of E.coli poisoning at age 8 and at age 20 had to have her colon removed. Or, people who develop diabetes after food poisoning inflamed their pancreas.
The long term consequences are “an important but relatively poorly studied and documented area of food borne illness” according to Dr. Robert Tauxe of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
Clearly, we need to start a database and start tracking these illnesses that may relate back to an episode of food poisoning. Proving cause and effect for problems that take this long to develop will be both a challenging and difficult ordeal. The database that STOP is developing is just a baby step with respect to this unexpected warning that has surfaced recently regarding the safety of our food supply.
About the Author
Kathy Shattler received her Master of Science degree from Michigan State University in E. Lansing Michigan in Human Nutrition. Her twenty-two years of practice includes holding positions as a Lecturer, Chief Clinical Dietitian and Program Manager. Kathy is the Founder of Nutri-Care Consulting and is currently the Nutrition Director of www.CEU4U.COM, an online continuing education management company for Registered Dietitians and Dietetic Technicians.
