Over 770,00 people get infected with Escherichia Coli ( E.Coli) infection each year, and over 60 of them die from it in the U.S alone.
(Downshen,2017 ,para 1) E.Coli spreads mostly due to unsanitary conditions in the kitchen, including unclean cutting boards; which causes cross contamination of fresh fruits and vegetables.(How to prevent E.Coli, 2014 ,para 3) Can spices be used to prevent the cross contamination of E.Coli bacteria on kitchen E.Coli?So what is E.
Coli? E.Coli is considered a mostly harmless bacteria that develops in the intestinal tract of warm-blooded organisms. Only certain strains of E.Coli are pathogenic, but the ones that are cause severe cramping in the abdominal sections, vomiting, and severe often bloody diarrhea.
The symptoms will last about 6-8 days, and the symptoms will occur 1-10 days after first contact with the reservoir for the bacteria (E.Coli ,2017,para 10).E.Coli is an unicellular organism, with a rod shaped G- bacterium; it is part of the genus Escherichia because it lives in the intestinal tract of other animals (Escherichia Coli Classification, n.d , para 5).
E.Coli duplicates itself every 20 minutes ,E.Coli has an optimum condition or their thriving conditions is warm and with a lot of nutrients for them to consume and grow (Graham, 2012, para 2). The bacteria can enter your body through the oral-fecal route or improper food handling, food processing or contaminated water; the bacteria can also spread through feces, for example if you handle a dirty diaper and you neglect to wash your hands there is a chance that you will become infected with E.Coli the bacteria is destroyed in temperatures of 70 degrees Celsius or higher (Schulman, 2017, para 4). E.
Coli can grow in conditions of ph 4.4 and with a minimum water level of 0.95 (aw). These are the characteristics of the sometimes deadly bacterium Escherichia Coli, but what happens when you actually contract it?Unsanitary conditions and cross contamination can lead to the spread of E.Coli, as raw meats possibly infected by E.Coli may touch fresh fruits and veggies you may eat.
E.Coli can spread through the oral-fecal route in developing countries as the sanitary conditions their don’t allow for clean unpolluted water (E.Coli,2017,para 13). E.Coli infection can also be transmitted from animals, such as deer and cows and sometimes even from birds this makes E.Coli a type of zoonosis, a type of disease that can spread from humans to animals (E.
Coli,2017,para 13). Common symptoms of E.Coli are diarrhea, fever, stomach cramping, dehydration, loss of appetite, nausea, fatigue, and in severe cases liver failure and death. Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS) is an aftermath of an E.
Coli infection were antibiotics have been used to treat the infection, it will usually occur a week after the infection has run its course (E.Coli,2017,para 17)The symptoms of HUS can include pale skin, skin pallor, bruising, dehydration, and brown colored urine (E.Coli Infection, Causes, Symptoms and Prevention, 2017, para 12)The chances of a patient to die from a plain E.Coli is 3-5 % but the chance to develop HUS is 10%, 50% of the survivors of HUS develop chronic renal sequelae. E.
Coli spreads through animals and food and water that we consume every day, the symptoms of E.Coli are dangerous and sometimes fatal.The prevention of E.Coli can be implemented by encouraging higher sanitation standards and the thorough cooking of meats. Practicing good hygiene is essential as E.
Coli bacteria can last for weeks undetected. (Preventing E.Coli Infection,n.
d,para 5)The young and the elderly are most at risk of E.Coli infection so they should not consume less than well done meat as it could contain E.Coli bacterium (E.Coli,2014,para 4). Cross contamination is extremely prevalent in the kitchens as cutting boards and sinks are a prime breeding place for E.
Coli bacterium (Gerba,C.P.,& Tamimi, 2014, para 3).To avoid E.Coli infection the best thing you can do is prevent it from breeding in the first place through good sanitation.
Can spices be used to prevent the spread of E.Coli bacteria in kitchens especially in the sink and around cutting boards? Spices have shown to be effective in fighting the spread of E.Coli so it seems that if cutting boards were disinfected with spices they could stop the spread of E.Coli. E.
Coli is a bacterium that has some pathogenic strains with most being harmless, it can cause anything from diarrhea to death, and the best way to prevent it is to have good sanitary conditions within your kitchen. This is important to prevent any more unnecessary deaths by something that can be stopped, by something very simple.
