And Cindy...do not forget this!! Kerry
What's New in Medicine
There are some interesting developments in the world of medicines and
diagnostic tests for the treatment and detection of E.coli O157:H7.
Probably the most promising is a drug called SYNSORB Pk manufactured
by the Calgary, Alberta, Canada company Synsorb. SYNSORB Pk is a drug
taken orally essentially made up of clay, charcoal, and a saccharide of
sugar. For some odd reason the E.coli binds itself molecularly with the
saccharide and then in conjunction with the clay it is naturally eliminated
from the body. The charcoal acts as an agent to absorb the E.coli toxins and
is also naturally eliminated. This drug is currently in clinical testing in
Canada. We have also received orphan drug status for SYNSORB PK,
which means once it is approved in Canada, it will immediately be
approved for use in the United States, without undergoing the required
additional lengthy testing in this country for the FDA (Food and Drug
Administration).
Two companies in this country have come out with a rapid test for E.coli
testing. The standard "old" test was the MacConkey-Sorbitol test which
required 48 to 72 hours in an attempt to grow (culture) an E.coli colony of
bacteria in an agar dish. This test had three distinct drawbacks: 1) the time
element was too long; 2) it looked for the bacteria, not the toxins created by
the bacteria; and 3) it was only good for E.coli O157:H7 and not any of the
other 100+ strains of pathogenic E.coli. In many cases, by the time the
medical community decided to look for E.coli O157:H7 all the bacteria had
already died, and thereby releasing their deadly toxins which may cause
hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). And if all the bacteria where already
dead it is impossible to culture them. This frequently happens if an E.coli
victim has already been treated with antibiotics, which are contraindicated
by all leading medical researchers as well as the Centers for Disease
Control (CDC).
Meridian Diagnostics, Inc. of Cincinnati, Ohio and MicroCarb Inc. of
Gaithersburg, Maryland have independently come up with tests that look for
the E.coli toxins and not the bacteria. Both of these tests look for toxins
produced by any pathogenic strain of E.coli, not just O157. According to
researchers, probably one-third of all E.coli infections are caused by strains
other than O157. And there have now been over 100 different strains of
mutant E.coli bacteria identified, such as O103, O111, O112, and O114.
Meridian's test is called Premier EHEC EIA. This test is effective on both
stool samples as well as the actual meat. Once the stool or meat has been
cultured for 16 hours, EHEC as it is known for short, will detect the toxins
in less than two hours using an automatable procedure. The EHEC test can
be used on stool samples without the culture period, but it's accuracy rate is
not as high doing the test this way.
MicroCarb's test is called VeroTest. Like Meridian's product, the VeroTest
can be used on both stool or meat samples. And like Meridian's test it can
detect both Shiga-like toxins (SLTs) or verotoxin (VT) producing strains of
Escherichia coli O157:H7. Meridian classifies them as SLT-1's and
SLT-2's. The VeroTest is an easy to use and convenient toxin detection test
with accuracy and sensitivity equal to the standard cytotoxicity cell assay.
VeroTest reduces the time needed to identify toxin positive cultures from
three days to three hours.
On the home front, Dupont has introduced Microban. Microban, according
to Dupont, is a material which has anti-bacterial protection built into it. This
product is now be used to manufacture cutting boards and all-purpose
towels. A company called Delka Ltd. out of Weston, Connecticut is selling
these two products on QVC, the cable TV shopping channel. The towels are
sold under the name Absorbeeze and remain effective even after 100
machine washings. The cutting boards made of Microban are automatically
rejuvenated each time they are used.
NVID International, Inc. of Sarasota, Florida has just introduced a new
disinfectant called Microsafe (F-7). According to company president Bob
Bunte, independent test results have shown Microsafe to equal or exceed
Lysol brand disinfectant spray in killing dangerous bacteria (E.coli
O157:H7, Salmonella Cholersuis, Staphylococcus Aureus, and Listeria
Monocytogenes) without the toxic effects and environmental hazards of
Lysol. Tests showed Microsafe (F-7) to be effective in killing 99.998% of
the above bacteria after 10 seconds of contact time. The company will
produce Microsafe as a topical spray to be used in similar applications to
Lysol. Other applications will include anti-microbacterial hand soap,
anti-microbacterial wash, and an anti-microbacterial and fungicidal
shampoo.
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