Urinary tract infections are more than an uncomfortable nuisance.
Foodborne bacteria could be behind more than a half-million UTIs in the US each year, according to worrisome new findings from experts who also warn that deaths caused by the same bacteria that bring about UTIs — E. coli — could be on the rise.
“We’re used to the idea that foodborne E. coli can cause outbreaks of diarrhea, but the concept of foodborne E. coli causing urinary tract infections seems strange — that is, until you recognize that raw meat is often riddled with the E. coli strains that cause these infections,” said professor Lance Price, director of George Washington University’s Antibiotic Resistance Action Center, in a statement.
“Our study provides compelling evidence that dangerous E. coli strains are making their way from food animals to people through the food supply and making people sick — sometimes really sick,” Lance noted.
One in five women will have at least one UTI in their lifetime, while diabetics and men with enlarged prostate glands have an increased risk of developing UTIs that can range from uncomfortable to deadly, the National Kidney Foundation reported.
Researchers from GWU’s Milken Institute School of Public Health already understand why E. coli infections occur: the pathogen, which lives in the gut, travels out through the bowels and makes its way into the urinary tract, causing infection. If left untreated, E. coli can make it into the bloodstream, causing more severe infection and, in extreme cases, death.
However, their study, published Thursday in the journal One Health, aimed to determine how the UTI-causing strain of E. coli enters the gut in the first place.
The researchers collected urine and blood samples from 1,188 patients hospitalized for UTIs in Flagstaff, Arizona, plus 1,923 samples of E. coli from raw chicken, turkey and pork bought at the local supermarkets.
After comparing the batches of E. coli from each test group, the team was able to match 8% of the samples from the UTI patients to the meat.
When scaled to the whole US, this would mean that an estimated 480,000 to 640,000 cases, out of the 6 to 8 million UTIs caused by E. coli each year, could be linked to meat consumption.
Symptoms of a UTI include the urgent need to urinate, a burning sensation when urinating, pressure or pain in the lower abdomen or pelvic region, cloudy or blood-tinged urine and urine with a strong odor.
While UTIs are common, the bladder can pass bacteria to the kidneys, which may lead to more serious illnesses, such as bladder infections. The number of bloodstream infections that began as UTIs is likely underestimated, researchers fear.
“People often dismiss bladder infections as minor annoyances, but the bladder is a major gateway to patients’ kidneys and bloodstream,” said GWU associate professor Cindy Liu, who co-led the study.
E. coli bloodstream infections kill between 36,000 and 40,000 people in the US every year, the release noted.
The experts warn that E. coli’s resistance to some antibiotics — also the treatment for UTIs — has strengthened in recent years, meaning that the number of people dying from bloodstream infections could continue to trend upwards.
The worrisome rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria has been attributed partially to industrial animal farming and the overuse of antibiotics in the meat industry.
“When you are packing animals together very tightly, pigs or poultry, and buying them from same breeder, yes, the dangerous strain of E. coli is going to spread very quickly,” Lance Price, one of the lead researchers, told The Guardian.
He explained that this allows the bacteria to mutate rapidly and “develop new characteristics that could cause worse disease and be more resistant to antibiotics.”
To mitigate the rise of antibiotic-resistant E. coli, researchers recommend that meat producers inoculate animals against the most dangerous strains of E. coli to prevent the bacteria from entering the food chain, and avoid excessive use of antibiotics.
For cooks at home, experts suggest limiting contact with meat products and following existing USDA public health food preparation guidelines:
- Clean—Wash hands and surfaces often.
- Separate—Don’t cross-contaminate.
- Cook—Cook all meat to a minimum internal temperature of 145 °F.
- Chill—Refrigerate promptly.