Food Poisoning In Japan: Warning Over Antibiotics

A US expert on contagious diseases has warned against using antibiotics to treat people infected with the 0157 strain of E coli, as Japanese health officials face the danger of increasing secondary infection in Japan's biggest outbreak of food poisoning in eight years. Seven people have died and 8,716 have been infected in 43 prefectures, by far the largest number of victims being school-children in Sakai, Osaka prefecture.

Local doctors have been using antibiotics to combat the bacteria. However, Stephen Ostroff of the US National Center for Infectious Diseases, said at a conference in Kyoto that antibiotic use does not reduce the illness' duration. Further, he said, it might increase the risk of developing hemolytic uremic syndrome in 0157 patients, which in severe cases leads to kidney failure and death. Japanese doctors remain divided on the use of antibiotics. Some say they cannot prevent HUS from developing or cure it, but others insist that they could be effective in preventing HUS in the early stages of the 0157 infection.

Local and national governments are coming under increasing criticism for not taking measures to contain the outbreak quickly enough. Health Minister Naoto Kan admitted the government did not take sufficient and effective measures to halt the spread of 0157, but denied that it failed to react promptly. In late-July the government set up a special ministerial council, headed by Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, to plan action to prevent the spread of 0157. One measure which it was expected to adopt was to apply the Infectious Diseases Prevention Law, which normally requires the quarantine of patients, to 0157, but Mr Kan said he would advise against isolation of patients, and hospitals in the Osaka area have said already that they lack the space and staff to care for the number of patients that would be quarantined under the law.