A deadly food poisoning outbreak making headlines in Japan involves a type of E. coli not routinely tested for in the United States -- a lesson that national E. coli attorney Fred Pritzker is hoping will speed policy changes here.

The current E. coli outbreak in Japan involves E. coli O111, one of six prevalent non-O157:H7 strains of E. coli not routinely screened for in the United States even though they produce the same potentially deadly toxin as E. coli O157:H7, which the U.S. government banned from ground beef in 1994. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has estimated that the six non-O157:H7 strains (O26, O45, O103, O111, O121 and O145) cause approximately 113,000 illnesses and 300 hospitalizations annually in the United States, yet to date there are no policies to control them.

Pritzker, who represents victims in practically every major outbreak of food poisoning in the U.S., said Japan's tragedy with E. coli O111 could accelerate positive change in the U.S., which has been inching too slowly toward classifying the six non-O157:H7 shiga toxin producing types of E. coli as pathogens that demand pre-market screening.

"Japan's nightmare with E. coli O111 should trigger changes in our own country," Pritzker said. "We shouldn't have to wait for a similarly sized disaster to strike here. It's another impetus for our government to get moving."

The Japan E. coli outbreak has killed two six-year-old boys, a 70-year-old woman and another member of that woman's family. The number of outbreak cases has topped 70. Food safety investigators have linked the outbreak to Korean-style steak tartar (raw beef) at a restaurant chain. Strains of the pathogen O111 with the virulence to cause life-threatening hemolytic uremic syndrome (E. coli-HUS) were detected among many hospitalized patients.

Source:
PritzkerOlsen, P.A.