GASTROENTERITIS FOLLOWING INGESTION OF SEWAGEPOLLUTED WATER: AN OUTBREAK AT A LOGGING CAMP ON THE OLYMPIC PENINSULA1

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A large outbreak of gastroenteritis, traced to sewage-contaminated drinking water, provided a rare opportunity to investigate the obscure etiologic agent of this familiar syndrome through extensive laboratory and epidemiologic investigation. Despite thorough bacteriologic, parasitologic, and viral studies, only one known pathogen, enter-opathogenic Escherichia coli 0126: B16, could be recovered. However, a large scale rectal swab survey at the logging camp and neighboring “control” communities showed no evidence that this pathogen was causally related to the outbreak, as it was recovered with comparable frequencies from all groups, whether or not they were ill or ingested camp water. Thus, the etiology of another outbreak of “sewage poisoning” remains obscure despite exhaustive but traditional laboratory methods; the possibility that the responsible agent was a delicate virus requiring more special handling is discussed.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: