Day 081 - 31 Jan 95 - Page 29
1 necessarily always of the same severity?
2 A. No.
3
4 Q. Sometimes you can just get a mild form of diarrhoea?
5 A. Yes.
6
7 Q. So there would be occasions when people might suffer
8 diarrhoea but it not be investigated so it would not
9 necessarily be known that it was caused by E.coli?
10 A. I think so.
11
12 Q. Even if E.coli was identified, if there were only one or
13 two people who came to the attention of, I do not know, the
14 health authorities, how deeply would that be investigated?
15 A. The local authority would investigate to see if there
16 was any common source and that if there was a common source
17 to take action.
18
19 Q. So if there was only one person then they would not
20 investigate or what?
21 A. They would normally take particulars and try to see if
22 they can get any information, but if it is one person then,
23 obviously, it is very difficult to get a common source.
24
25 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I can see that if someone has mild diarrhoea
26 then it may not come to any official notice whatsoever.
27 A. Yes, sir.
28
29 Q. But if someone is, for instance, sufficiently ill or feels
30 sufficiently unwell to go to their doctor or ends up in
31 hospital and some kind of tests are done which reveal, let
32 us say in this instance, E.coli 0157: 7H, would there be an
33 automatic investigation to try to find the cause or would
34 that just be a matter for the physician treating his or her
35 patient?
36 A. Generally, it depends on -----
37
38 Q. I mean, there are, sort of, I do not know the phrase,
39 reportable or declarable diseases, are there not?
40 A. Yes. There are notifiable diseases. But in the case
41 of E.coli 0157 I think that would be investigated, although
42 it is not a notifiable disease.
43
44 MS. STEEL: Is it fairly rare that E.coli 0157: H7 food
45 poisoning leads to kidney failure and severe intestinal
46 illness?
47 A. I am afraid that is outside my province.
48
49 Q. You do not know?
50 A. No.
51
52 Q. When you talked about cooking being the most important
53 stage for preventing food poisoning, is it right that
54 whereas, say, with a piece of steak the bacteria will all
55 be on the outside so they would be more likely to be killed
56 fairly rapidly when coming into contact with heat, if you
57 have a burger that has a large surface area and the
58 original surface area is all now mixed in in the inside, so
59 you would need to cook it for longer and at higher
60 temperatures to be safer?
