Health
Meat contaminated with E. coli could cause half a million urinary tract infections each year, study finds
Contaminated meat could possibly be the offender behind practically half one million urinary tract infections (UTIs) within the U.S. annually, a brand new research printed within the journal One Well being discovered.
UTIs are brought on by a micro organism known as Escherichia coli (E. coli), which is discovered within the gastrointestinal tract.
Researchers from a number of universities — together with George Washington College, College of Michigan and Northern Arizona College — analyzed 1,923 uncooked rooster, pork and turkey samples from 9 main grocery shops in Flagstaff, Arizona over a 12-month interval.
Subsequent, they checked out 1,188 urine and blood samples from Flagstaff Medical Heart from the identical time-frame.
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Via genetic testing, the researchers discovered that round 8% of all E.coli circumstances (primarily UTIs) got here from the consumption of meals merchandise.
On a nationwide stage, contemplating that six to eight million UTIs are identified within the U.S. yearly, that will equate to 480,000 to 640,000 circumstances coming from contaminated meals.
“The largest takeaway is that meat within the U.S. is serving as a car for E. coli that’s inflicting urinary tract infections,” lead researcher Lance B. Value, PhD, professor of environmental and occupational well being at George Washington College in Washington, D.C., informed Fox Information Digital through e-mail.
UTIs: What to know
Some 10 out of each 25 girls and three out of each 25 males will contract a urinary tract an infection in some unspecified time in the future, in line with the Urology Care Basis.
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Frequent indicators embody cloudy or foul-smelling urine, ache or burning on urination, stomach strain and a persistent urge to urinate.
UTIs don’t sometimes trigger severe outcomes, however in uncommon circumstances, they’ll result in kidney infections. Most circumstances will be handled with antibiotics.
How E. coli spreads
E. coli is a bacterium that’s usually discovered within the guts of animals in addition to people, mentioned Trevor Craig, meals security knowledgeable and company director of technical coaching and consulting at Microbac Laboratories in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Craig was not concerned on this analysis.
“They play an essential half in a standard microbiome, however some particular species of E. coli could cause severe human sickness,” he informed Fox Information Digital through e-mail.
“Generally, these sicknesses are marked by cramps, diarrhea and vomiting, however in uncommon circumstances they’ll result in organ harm.”
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E. coli sometimes spreads by way of unclean merchandise and environments, he mentioned. In some circumstances, nonetheless, the intestine components of animals can contaminate the opposite components that people devour.
“That is usually taken care of by cooking, but when a product is contaminated and undercooked, it might probably present an setting the place E. coli can survive after which infect the human intestine,” he defined.
“If a product is contaminated and undercooked, it might probably present an setting the place E. coli can survive after which infect the human intestine.”
“Whereas E. coli has lengthy been related to meat, particularly minced meat like beef, it’s now generally related to contamination and recollects in a number of merchandise like produce, leafy greens, dairy and nut butters,” Craig added.
The function of antibiotics
Matthew Wellington, public well being campaigns director for the U.S. Public Curiosity Analysis Group (PIRG) in Washington, D.C., factors out that antibiotics used throughout meat manufacturing can heighten the danger of foodborne bacterial infections. (He was not concerned on this research.)
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“It’s normal for typical meat producers to routinely use medically essential antibiotics to compensate for industrial farming situations,” he informed Fox Information Digital.
“That overuse breeds drug-resistant micro organism that may unfold [from] farms and sicken folks with harmful sickness.”
It is vital to scale back antibiotic use in meat manufacturing, Wellington believes, to assist maintain these medicine efficient for treating many various kinds of well being threats.
“Whereas the foodborne E. coli strains have been much less regarding than the opposite E. coli populations studied when it got here to antibiotic resistance, the research authors nonetheless discovered that the foodborne strains exhibited a ‘substantial prevalence of resistance’ to antibiotics utilized in human medication, together with some which are generally used to deal with E. coli infections,” he mentioned.
“Among the most harmful strains to folks additionally trigger infections in animals.”
Which means individuals who contract one in all these resistant strains of E. coli might discover that typical antibiotic remedies fail to kill the an infection.
Findings might encourage prevention
The information popping out of the research might assist scale back the incidence of those infections, mentioned research creator Dr. Value.
“For instance, we might vaccinate animals in opposition to essentially the most harmful strains,” he mentioned. “This could be a win-win for meals animal producers and public well being as a result of a number of the most harmful strains to folks additionally trigger infections in animals.”
Meals security protocol is vital
The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) has outlined steps for meals security to forestall E.coli contamination.
LEFTOVER FOOD SAFETY: WHAT TO KNOW
First, make sure you wash arms, surfaces and cooking instruments usually throughout meals preparation.
All produce must be rinsed beneath working water.
Whereas getting ready meals, it’s essential to maintain uncooked meat, seafood, poultry and eggs separate from different meals to keep away from cross-contamination.
Completely prepare dinner meals to make sure security. Use a meals thermometer to make sure that the temperature is excessive sufficient to kill any micro organism.
The CDC lists the suitable cooking temperatures for various kinds of meals.
All meals must be promptly refrigerated. The “hazard zone” — which is when micro organism multiply quickest — is between 40°F and 140°F, in line with the CDC.
Researcher calls out limitations
The lead researcher of the research believes that its largest limitation — the truth that it was performed in a single small, geographically remoted metropolis (Flagstaff, Arizona) — can also be one in all its strengths.
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As a result of they targeted on a singular location, Dr. Value mentioned the analysis group was capable of pattern a lot of the infections and all main manufacturers of meat within the metropolis over the course of a 12 months.
“We’ll have to check extra cities to see if the findings are generalizable,” he mentioned.
“I think that they’re, since most meat merchandise are produced in a couple of agricultural areas and shipped all around the nation.”
Health
Young girl survives cancer thanks to little sister’s lifesaving donation: 'A perfect match'
A young girl in the U.K. is in cancer remission thanks to her sister’s lifesaving bone marrow donation.
Ruby Leaning, 10, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia after collapsing on the school playground in Jan. 2020, according to SWNS, the British news service.
The rare blood cancer required an urgent bone marrow transplant to keep the 6-year-old alive.
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After several tests, Leaning’s then 2-year-old sister, Mabel Leaning, came up as a “perfect match.”
The Leaning sisters’ grandmother, Amanda Fawcett, confirmed to SWNS that Ruby Leaning received treatment with Mabel Leaning’s stem cells.
Ruby Leaning was declared cancer-free in 2022 — meaning Mabel Leaning “saved Ruby’s life for sure,” Fawcett said.
“She’s a happy, normal and healthy 10-year-old who loves swimming, dancing and piano lessons.”
“We [weren’t] expecting her to be a match at first, but thankfully she was, so we just couldn’t believe our luck,” she said.
“It was amazing – we were so thankful.”
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Fawcett recalled the moment her granddaughter was diagnosed with cancer at Sheffield Children’s Hospital.
“It’s just every parent and grandparent’s nightmare,” she said to SWNS.
“I was in the room with her mom when we found out, and you just can’t take anything in at all. It was all just heart-shattering.”
Fawcett described her granddaughters as “so close,” telling SWNS that they are “amazing girls.”
“They’ve got a great relationship between them,” she said.
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“But Mabel will be asking to borrow Ruby’s shoes when she realizes [she saved her life] – and we do laugh about how it will be fun and games.”
Fawcett said Ruby Leaning has been “doing fantastic” in remission and is “back to her normal self.”
“She’s a happy, normal and healthy 10-year-old who loves swimming, dancing and piano lessons,” she said.
The grandmother is currently raising money for the Parents Association of Children with Tumors and Leukemia (PACT), which supported the Leaning family, according to SWNS.
“None of us could be there for Ruby, which was horrendous for us, because of the pandemic,” Fawcett shared.
“But they were an amazing support.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Sheffield Children’s Hospital for additional comment.
For more Health articles, visit www.foxnews.com/health.
Health
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Health
Alzheimer's drug embrace slows down as US doctors' reluctance grows
Nine months into the U.S. launch of the first drug proven to slow the advance of Alzheimer’s, Eisai and Biogen’s Leqembi is facing an unexpected hurdle to widespread use: an entrenched belief among some doctors that treating the memory-robbing disease is futile.
Alzheimer’s experts had anticipated bottlenecks due to Leqembi’s requirements, which include additional diagnostic tests, twice-monthly infusions and regular brain scans to guard against potentially lethal side effects.
And those issues have played a role in slow adoption since the drug was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, according to interviews with 20 neurologists and geriatricians from rural, urban, academic and community practices in 19 states.
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In interviews with Reuters, seven doctors treating patients for Alzheimer’s attributed their own reluctance to prescribe Leqembi to concerns about the drug’s efficacy, cost and risks.
“I don’t think it’s a good Alzheimer’s drug. I think that’s the problem,” said Dr. James Burke, a neurologist at the Ohio State University who has been an outspoken critic of Leqembi. “It’s certainly nothing like the home run that we’re looking for.”
Another six scientists, all leaders in the field, said “therapeutic nihilism” – the belief that Alzheimer’s is a hopelessly intractable disease – was playing a bigger role than anticipated in suppressing demand from primary care doctors, geriatricians and neurologists who could be sending patients to memory specialists for treatment.
Dr. Reisa Sperling, a neurologist and Alzheimer’s researcher at Mass General Brigham in Boston, likens some doctors’ skepticism to Leqembi to fatalistic attitudes about cancer treatment 30 years ago: “You can’t really do anything about it, so why would you even want to get tested?”
Alex Scott, Eisai’s chief administrative officer, acknowledged that skepticism has weighed on the launch along with slower-than-expected adoption by large health systems.
He suggested that some of the doctors’ hesitancy could be a holdover from the decades-long journey to prove that removing the Alzheimer’s protein beta amyloid from the brain could slow the course of the disease. Before Esai released the promising results of its Leqembi trial, some thought that area of research “a fool’s errand,” Scott said.
“We are beginning to make more and more progress every single month. So we’re still quite encouraged,” Scott said. “This is a new journey, and I think it takes some time for providers to figure it out.”
‘SIGNIFICANT RISKS, MARGINAL BENEFIT’
Leqembi was the first amyloid-targeting drug granted full FDA approval after it slowed the decline in cognition in people in the early stages of Alzheimer’s by 27% in a clinical trial.
Of the 10,000 Americans the companies hoped to treat by the end of March, Eisai announced only a couple thousand had begun treatment as of the end of January. An Eisai spokeswoman declined to provide updated numbers.
Even for treatments that do not require dramatic changes to medical practice, adoption of new drugs is notoriously slow. Several studies have estimated that it can take 17 years on average for clinical research to be translated into routine practice.
The disease is estimated to affect more than 6 million Americans, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.
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Fewer than half of U.S. neurologists recommend Leqembi to patients, according to a January survey by life sciences market researcher Spherix Global Insights.
Dr. Michael Greicius, a professor at Stanford University’s Center for Memory Disorders, said there is little evidence that Leqembi benefits patients in a meaningful way.
“If we take the trial result at face value, the differences between placebo and treatment are likely small enough as to be undetectable by patients and family members or physicians,” said Greicius, who does not recommend Leqembi to patients.
He said the long wait for an Alzheimer’s drug has put doctors in the position of feeling obligated to offer a treatment “even if the evidence for it is very slim.”
Other doctors have raised concerns about the risk of brain swelling and bleeding associated with Leqembi as well as the costs associated with the $26,500 annual drug, frequent MRIs and twice-monthly infusions.
“There are significant risks associated with these drugs, there are significant costs, and I would say there is marginal benefit,” said Dr. Eric Widera, a geriatrician and professor at University of California San Francisco, referring to amyloid-lowering treatments.
In an editorial published in November in the Journal of Gerontological Nursing, Donna Fick, president of the American Geriatrics Society, advised doctors that the group recommends caution in the use of lecanemab, which is sold under the brand name of Leqembi.
“It is not yet clear whether treatments such as lecanemab that remove amyloid from the brain produce clinically important slowing of cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s disease.”
‘YOUR ENEMY IS NIHILISM’
Dr. Jonathan Liss, a neurologist from Columbus, Georgia, who serves on Eisai’s scientific advisory board and has tested Leqembi in clinical trials, said he first warned about nihilism at a November 2022 conference following a presentation of Leqembi’s breakthrough study.
Eisai had asked its scientific advisors how the drug might fare against future rivals. Liss cautioned that rivals were not the enemy; “your enemy is nihilism,’” he recalled. “All of the neurologists around the table started applauding.”
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Dr. Nathaniel Chin, a geriatrician with the University of Wisconsin’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, said he was the target of negative comments on social media after he urged geriatricians to embrace such treatments in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
Geriatricians, geriatric social workers and nurses objected, arguing that the drug’s statistically significant benefit was not clinically meaningful to patients, especially given the risks, he said.
“I would ask the question, ‘Is it ethical to withhold a medication that is FDA-approved and covered by insurance from someone who knows the risk and is willing to take it?’” Chin said.
Dr. Priya Singhal, executive vice president and head of development at Biogen, acknowledged some apathy among physicians about the treatment but said that infrastructure and lack of access to neurologists have been bigger issues.
Singhal said the companies are working with physician and patient advocacy groups and developing educational programs and materials aimed at diagnosing early-stage patients, managing side effects and understanding the drug’s benefits.
The companies said they intend to increase their salesforce by 30% as they aim for 100,000 patients by 2026.
For the moment, Leqembi is the only Alzheimer’s drug on the market designed to slow the course of the disease. A decision on Lilly’s donanemab has been delayed until the FDA convenes an advisory panel.
Lilly neuroscience president Anne White said in an interview that she sees doctor hesitancy as an issue that the company hopes to address by making clear which patients benefit from such treatments.
In the early stages of Alzheimer’s, many patients are still independent, and to be able to remain so for longer is very meaningful, she said.
‘PEACE AND QUIET’
Lyn Castellano, 64, who founded and ran a St. Louis breast cancer charity for 20 years and trained therapy dogs, started taking Leqembi last September, nearly a year after she found herself struggling with keeping track of appointments and was diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment.
Castellano said the prospect of bleeding in the brain – a possible side effect of the drug – was her biggest concern, but her family believed the drug may offer a chance at slowing the disease.
She is one of more than 140 patients being treated by physicians from Washington University in St. Louis, and has had 13 infusions and two MRIs without incident.
Dr. Suzanne Schindler, an Alzheimer’s researcher who is treating Castellano, said Leqembi “forces clinicians to completely change the way they have practiced medicine for many years.”
She said she is candid about Leqembi’s modest benefit as well as the risks. About 80% of those she believes are good candidates have opted for the treatment, she said.
While Castellano can’t tell if Leqembi is helping, she says the treatment has given her hope, and she doesn’t mind the twice monthly infusions.
“I get to go, sit back in a nice chair, have my dog with me and read a book for a couple hours. It’s about the only place I get some peace and quiet.”
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