BERKELEY, Calif., Jan. 4 (UPI) -- Foodborne disease may be more common than previously thought, concluded researchers who examined an outbreak of urinary tract infections in three states.
The study by the University of California-Berkeley said a string of urinary tract infections, or UTIs, in California, Michigan and Minnesota between October 1999 and January 2000 likely were caused by drug-resistant E coli bacteria in meat or milk.
UTIs, one of the most common infections in women, typically are not considered "outbreak" diseases. However, since the outbreak likely was caused by drug-resistant bacteria, said lead author Lee Riley, "then the problem of foodborne disease is much greater in scope than we had ever previously thought."
Researchers, reporting in the Jan. 15 edition of Clinical Infectious Diseases, said proper preparation is the only way to make sure food is safe.
