Posted: May 31st, 2012 - 8:50pm by Doug Powell In May, 2011, the delayed reporting of cases between agencies dueto a decentralized government and its agencies was a contributingfactor in the Germany-based E. coli O104 outbreak that led to 53deaths and over 4,000 sick people. The E. coli strain responsiblefor the outbreak was unusually virulent, with high mortality and hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) rates observed inhealthy adults. A year later, Marian Turner writes in Nature that governments have made little progress towards improving themonitoring and reporting systems that allowed the crisis to drag onfor weeks. Although the panic has sparked some proposed policy changes, thesehave become mired in political debate at both German and Europeanlevels. Under Germany"s current system, it can take up to 18 days forlocal and state health departments to relay case reports to theBerlin-based Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the German federal agencyfor disease surveillance. Legislators have proposed a law to bringthe country"s disease-reporting schedule into line with theWorld Health Organization"s International Health Regulations.The law would require local health authorities to report cases ofnotifiable diseases to state authorities on the next working day;the states would then have another day to relay the information tothe RKI. "We"ve been waiting almost a decade forthis," says Alexander Kekulé, a microbiologist at theMartin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg in Halle, Germany. The draft law has been passed by Germany"s federal parliamentbut is stuck in negotiations at the legislative council thatrepresents Germany"s 16 states. For scientists, though, thischange would still not be enough. "What really delayed thedetection of this outbreak was the irregularity with which patientswere referred for microbiological follow-up," saysGérard Krause, an epidemiologist at the RKI. Like manyEuropean countries, Germany does not require that a patient withbloody diarrhoea or haemolytic uraemic syndrome (a life-threateningcomplication of some E. coli infections) be tested for thecausative bacterial strain. The same is true of the United States. After the outbreak, German diagnostic laboratories were providedwith kits to test samples for genes belonging to certain pathogenicstrains of bacteria, such as those expressing particular toxins, orproteins involved in adhesion or invasion. But physicians are responsible for requesting the tests, and thecost is not covered by German health-insurance companies."The problem is mostly getting the money to use thesekits," says Angelika Fruth, a microbiologist at the RKI,"and that situation is just the same as before theoutbreak." In the wake of the outbreak, the European Food Safety Authorityconcluded that sprouted seeds pose a particular food-safetyconcern, and recommended that a standardized test for sprouts bedeveloped and adopted across the European Union (EU). But EU membercountries are still discussing the proposal, and scientists haveyet to develop reliable methods to isolate pathogenic bacteria fromseeds or sprouts. I am an expert from laser-beautymachine.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Multifunctional Beauty Machine , China IPL RF Elight, Cavitation Beauty Machine,and more.
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