Male1: It is in the news lately that if you go to a fastfood restaurant, you could get more than what you bargained for and some people go to Taco Bell recently and there has been some hamburger joints in the north—it is in the northwest of the country many years ago, you got this thing called hemolytic uremic syndrome for eating the food. What is that all about? You end up with a gastro guy, maybe a hematologist, could you explain that a little bit?
Male2: That is a very good question because in fact, as you commented, we have had several cases in the news reporting this type of problems. The food company contaminated by a variety of bacteria and it is important also to take into account that the disease has also gone global. Therefore, we cannot get the food from many parts of the world and it is very difficult really to have a good control of the contamination of the food.
Male1: But the mechanism recently, the news was a bacteria called OX—
Male2: The bacteria is called by different names, so there is a bacteria called Escherichia coli or E-coli and that bacteria has also different strains, different addresses, so one of these strains is E-coli 0157, which is characteristically may produce certain toxins that maybe very toxic to the intestine and particularly produces a severe complication that are conditions that you can mention, as you have mentioned, it is hemolytic uremic syndrome.
In that condition, there is a destruction of the red blood cells and then the condition may affect also the kidneys of the patient and inducing the presence of renal failure.
The condition maybe very serious and severe and it will require treatment and in many cases, certainly admission to the hospital.
Male1: And that condition, because it can cause the kidneys to fail that is one of the reasons people die is it?
Male2: Certainly, there is mortality associated to the condition and it is associated to the complications including severe hemolysis with the presence of renal failure.
Male1: Now, our food supply, people think, if we are going to get organic vegetables, but if it is fertilized with cow manure, you did not gain anything, did we?
Male2: Well, there is this misconception about organic and natural produce and I comment to my patients, diseases are natural, and so not everything that is natural organic is necessarily healthy, and your comment is precisely very well taken. The soil maybe fertilized with manure, which is organic, but manure is going to contain a lot of bacteria and then certainly, can contaminate the food. Similarly, it may happen with the type of irrigation that the source may have. Depending either on the rivers are very contaminated et cetera, so that also can produce contamination of the food and also in the process of transportation and packing of the food, contamination may occur at any step of that process.
Male1: It is good safeguard if you are going to cook a hamburger and they say, let us get to I think 165-degrees?
Male2: Well, it is certainly cooking very well meat is very important to try to inactivate this substance and to kill the bacteria and certainly for other produce like vegetables is very important really to take at least this very traditional measures that washing very well the vegetables before being consumed.
Male1: But sometimes, it gets into the root system and washing does not even help.
Male2: That is true.
Male1: But if you are going to clean it, you have a better chance of having a better result.
Male2: Certainly, you are right.
Male1: They say eating a stake even washed is better than having a hamburger because the flame kills the outside, but when you have a hamburger, you have got to make it in the inside, is that correct?
Male2: Well, I probably I would not say so. I think that it is important really to cook very well the meal and really be sure that it is well done.
Male1: In Europe, they irradiate a lot of food through pass these big bins and they have radiation. Does that reduce the risk of getting this disease to some degree? We do not do it here because we think radiation of food is bad. Because you only hear it back in Europe, but not here.
Male2: Well, I think that radiation in fact may produce sterilization of the food and certainly, it can be a measure to reduce the incidence of food poisoning.
Male1: But this case, this stuff is really strong, is it not?
Male2: Well that can be very, very serious. Certainly, it is and in every strain, you can have different abilities to produce larger amounts of toxin and it is also going to depend on the host how young is the person—
Male1: When you compromise--
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