Raw milk suspected as cause of bacterial infections among four children in Hardin County and one in Oldham County

Five children in the Louisville region were recently hospitalized with E. coli bacterial infections, and all had consumed unpasteurized milk, state health agencies found. Investigators have not yet proven that raw milk caused the infections, but "found raw milk was the only common factor among the sick children," Forrest Berkshire reports for The Kentucky Standard in Bardstown and The News-Enterprise of Elizabethtown.

Four of the children are from Hardin County, and one is from Oldham. All went to a hospital to be treated for complications of E. coli, which attacked their red blood cells and affected their kidneys. The Lincoln Trail District Health Department said tests of milk from the suspected dairy and distributors were negative for E. coli, a bacterium common to the intestinal tracts of mammals.

"Pasteurization is the process of heating a liquid such as milk to a high enough temperature to destroy disease-causing microorganisms," Berkshire explains. "It also increases the shelf life of milk by destroying spoilage microorganisms and enzymes."

The state Department for Public Health said, "DPH is stressing the dangers of unpasteurized milk after learning all the affected children had consumed it and because it is a known source of E. coli bacteria, as well as numerous other pathogens that can lead to illness."

Selling raw milk is illegal in Kentucky, but is available through a "herd share," which allows members to buy an interest in a cow that allows them to take the milk home. "Northern Kentucky U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican, introduced two bills earlier this year he characterized as 'milk freedom legislation' and would strip the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of its authority to police raw milk sales," Berkshire writes. Supporters of raw milk say it helps people resist disease and promotes better growth, stronger teeth and better behavior.

However, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted a study over a decade that found "the risk of outbreaks caused by raw milk is at least 150 times greater than the risk of outbreaks caused by pasteurized milk," Berkshire reports.

Kentucky law requires milk must be pasteurized, and officials encourage buyers to check labels to make sure it is, and throw it out if pasteurization cannot be confirmed. "Even negative tests do not guarantee that raw milk is safe to drink," the CDC says on its "Raw Milk Questions and Answers" webpage. "People have become very sick from drinking raw milk that came from farms that regularly tested their milk for bacteria and whose owners were sure that their milk was safe." (Read more)

'Superbug' considered the worst one yet is still not widespread in Kentucky hospitals, but officials predict it is coming

A new deadly superbug that is almost totally resistant to antibiotics and kills about half who get bloodstream infections has found its way to community hospitals in the Southeastern United States, Laura Ungar reports for The Courier-Journal.

 "We haven't seen much here, but I'm sure it's coming," Forest Arnold, an epidemiologist at University of Louisville Hospital and an associate professor of infectious diseases at the university, told Ungar.

CRE, short for carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, are a family of bacteria that have, over time, become resistant to antibiotics called carbapenems, which are considered drugs of last resort for this type of infection. It can cause a range of illnesses depending on where it infects the body, ranging from gastrointestinal illness to pneumonia to bloodstream infections.

A recent study in the journal Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology indicates CRE increased "fivefold" at community hospitals in several southeastern states from 2008 to 2012, Ungar reports. Kentucky was not part of the study, but researchers say the rates "reflect a growing problem across the region and throughout the country." 

"People need to be aware," Arnold told Ungar. "It will eventually get here."

Experts report that overuse of antibiotics is one of the main reasons for these superbugs, Ungar writes. And Dr. Kevin Kavanaugh, an infection-control activist who leads the Somerset-based watchdog group Health Watch USA, told Ungar that  Kentucky has one of the nation's highest rates of antibiotic use, sometimes prescribed unnecessarily.

"CRE is very dangerous," Kavanagh said. "It is almost totally resistant to antibiotics."

Ungar reports that local hospitals have seen growing numbers of CRE, citing examples of University Hospital with a case last year in which the patient died, and Norton Healthcare, with three cases in the first three months of last year and 10 others between 2010 and 2013.

Last year, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that CRE had spread from one medical facility in 2001 to numerous facilities in 46 states in 2013, Ungar notes. CDC Director Tom Frieden has labeled  CRE "nightmare bacteria," calling them the worst of the growing list of antibiotic resistant germs that "take hold in health care settings."

 One in 25 hospitalized patients has at least one health care-associated infection on any given day, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with C. difficile, which causes 14,000 American deaths per year and MRSA, which one study shows kills 18,000 Americans a year, being  two of the most common, Ungar reports.

Doctors say they hope to control CRE before it becomes as common as MRSA, which has spread to communities, Ungar reports.

 "So far, CRE are just in the health care setting," Kavanagh told Ungar. " 'If it continues to grow and escape into the community, it will be an even bigger problem' and the medicines doctors count on to cure bacterial infections will no longer work against them."

Kavanaugh told Ungar that "antibiotics should be used only when they are absolutely necessary, and hospitals must remain vigilant about ensuring health care workers wash their hands often, keep rooms and medical equipment clean, wear gowns and gloves when appropriate and separate infected patients from others."

"If the emergence and spread of superbugs aren't prevented,'we'll be in a post-antibiotic era'," Kavanagh told Ungar. "And the danger is not going to go away unless we change the course of how we do things."