Interview
My interview with Kathy Dahl was very brief, but I managed to get a few questions and some very good answers in return. I started the interview with the simple question of what E Coli is. She explained to me that E-Coli consists of hundreds of different strains of bacteria, many of which are harmless, however a few particular strands, one being Esherichia Coli are extremely dangerous. Secondly I asked how E-Coli is spread, she explains that E-Coli is hidden in the intestines of cows and is normally moved through the body, but in some cases this bacteria doesn’t move out of the body. And when the cow is slaughtered the organisms are mixed in when the beef is ground. I began to ask about the effects of E-Coli and how life threatening it could be. She told me that normally the person will get no fever and the person will feel ill within the 4 days after being infected. Normally it causes diarrhea and extremely painful abominable cramps. On an average of 6 to 7 days the infection will clear itself up. However, in some cases the infection can escalate into HUS. This part of the infection is the life taker. It systematically shuts down all the organs of the body, normally it strikes young children or the elderly. This illness HUS has no cure, and even E-Coli really can’t be helped. She explained to me that antibiotic could actually hurt the situation by causing kidney complications. The long-term consequences of E-Coli are almost none; most of everyone recovers to one hundred percent . HUS can give life-long implications such as blindness and kidney failure. |