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Bacterial Foodborne Diseases
![Bacterial illnesses from food](../../../../../../../../../figures.boundless-cdn.com/19104/full/figure-22-04-06f.jpeg)
Bacterial illnesses from food
(a) Vegetable sprouts grown at an organic farm were the cause of an (b) E. coli outbreak that killed 32 people and sickened 3,800 in Germany in 2011. The strain responsible, E. coli O104:H4, produces Shiga toxin, a substance that inhibits protein synthesis in the host cell. The toxin (c) destroys red blood cells, resulting in bloody diarrhea. Deformed red blood cells clog the capillaries of the kidney, which can lead to kidney failure, as happened to 845 patients in the 2011 outbreak. Kidney failure is usually reversible, but some patients experience kidney problems years later.
Source
Boundless vets and curates high-quality, openly licensed content from around the Internet. This particular resource used the following sources:
"OpenStax College, Bacterial Diseases in Humans. October 16, 2013."
http://cnx.org/content/m44607/latest/Figure_22_04_06f.jpg
OpenStax CNX
CC BY 3.0.