What’s the most common way E.coli spreads?
Food chain's role in thousands of cases of bacteraemia annually is debated, say researchers
Inadequate handwashing, rather than uncooked meat, appears to be the more common cause of the spread of antibiotic-resistant E.coli infections, a UK study suggests.
Researchers from the University of East Anglia did a genetic analysis of thousands of samples of extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli isolates (ESBL-E.coli).
They found that most E.coli infections in the UK were caused by a strain often found in the human gut and in sewage, but not seen much in the food supply.
That suggests the infection is primarily being spread as a result of human faecal particles transmitted from person to person, the study team writes in Lancet Infectious Diseases.
