Beware of E. Coli Threat Stay

While in Indonesia are not reported the existence of cases of infection of E. coli strains that are prevalent in Europe, people should remain alert to the threat of bacterial infection that has claimed many victims.

Security measures can be done by always maintaining hygiene, reduce consumption of raw food and always heat the food up to a certain temperature.

According to Drs. Karuniawati Anis, PhD, SpMK, Chairman, Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Indonesia (Faculty of medicine), vigilance remains necessary despite the Indonesian people in general known to prefer to consume food that is cooked. Unlike the citizens of Europe who have a habit of eating raw foods, especially vegetables.


To prevent the possibility of dangerous bacterial infection, said Anis, at least there are three steps that can be done. First, avoid eating raw foods and wash vegetables with boiled water to reduce the number of bacteria. Second, cooked food / drinks properly, until cooked. Third, wash your hands with soap and water before eating (or with a hand sanitizer.)

"Bacteria are generally going to die at 70 degrees centigrade warming for 30 minutes. So, to consider the process of processing food / beverage," said Anis Saturday (06/04/2011), in Jakarta.

Renal failure

Plague bacteria in Europe today, according caused by germs that are included in the group of entero-haemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC). Escherichia coli or commonly abbreviated as E. coli, is one of the main species of gram-negative bacteria. In general, these bacteria can be found in the human colon. Most E. Coli are harmless, but some, such as strains of E. Coli such as O157: H7, can cause serious food poisoning in humans.

It is known that, in addition to EHEC cause acute diarrhea can also cause Hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) / rare kidney failure. According to Anis, it is because E. coli has the ability to produce toxins, called Verotoksin (VT) 1 and 2.

Anis Briefly describe how the bacteria can cause kidney failure in the sufferer. "The bacteria entered with contaminated food and then attached to the mucosa of the large intestine and produce toxin. Verotoksin then enter the blood stream and bound to the Gb3 receptor found in the kidney," he said.

Anis continued, resulting Verotoksin known EHEC similar to the toxin produced by Shigella dysentriae thus also called Shiga-like toxin (ST). So we can say that, E. coli is likely to gain the ability to produce toxins from the transfer of genes from Shigella dysentriae.

According to him, there are several E. coli serotypes included in the EHEC group. Most are the serotype O157: H7, other serotypes were also non-O157: H7 and including those in Korea have been reported E. coli O104: H4. Distribution of serotypes is based on the H antigen (flagella) and O (somatic) owned by E. coli.

Related how the bacteria mutate to become highly lethal, Anis said, like most bacteria, bacterial cell's genetic material can be moved vertically or horizontally. The transfer of genetic material horizontally can occur from bacterial cell to another cell which is still in the same group or different species.

"How can transfer directly, through pili (one of the cell organelles) or transferred by the lawyer-virus bakteriofaga or bacterial infection of one bacterial cell to another cell," he explained.

Attacking tubu with good immunity

Anis said, several years ago EHEC caused outbreaks in several large countries like the United States, Germany and Japan. At that time the source of infection is milk and meat (for burgers) that are not cooked until done. Bacterial attack on children and the elderly or in adults with poor immune function properly.

However, the current outbreak in Europe was also attacked adults with good immunity. So it is likely the cause of an outbreak strain of E. coli is the nature of EHEC with the addition of other more virulent.

"The last news I read, research results while saying the possibility of this new strain of E. coli have virulence properties of EHEC and EAEC," he said.

Being asked about the type of E. coli found in Indonesia, Anis admitted that, until now not available new data on the types of existing E. coli.

"In Indonesia routinely performed laboratory identification of E. coli to find E. coli are pathogenic or not. However, the pathogenic E. coli was not identified further included in the group where," he explained.

Most of the pathogenic E. coli, said Anis, can be divided into several groups such as, Entertoxigenic E. coli (ETEC), Enteropathogenic E.coli (EPEC), Enterohaemorrhagic E.coli (EHEC) or Shiga-like Toxin producing E.coli (STEC), Enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC), Enteroinvasive E.coli (EIEC), and Diffusely Adherent E. coli (DAEC).

"The division is based on virulence factors (factors that cause disease) that has," he said.