ABSTRACT
As I write there are reports of yet another outbreak of food borne disease with some hospitalizations and deaths. This time it is Escherichia coli O157:H7, a virulent variant of the benign E. coli bacteria that resides in all of our digestive tracts. Extremely rare until 1982, 0157:H7 is not unusual today, [202]. According to a page at www.cdc.gov in 1999, more than 75 million Americans get sick each year from food, of which about 325,000 require hospitalization. At least 5,000 to as many as 9,000 die. What is the situation when you read this? I am not sure how this death rate compares to that of hunter-gatherers going after woolly mammoths, but it is not comforting. Let’s do a U.S.A. warm-up exercise.
