Do not wash your hands after going to the toilet? The chance of contracting deadly germs exceeds eating raw meat

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Production|Technology "Knowledge" column group (public number: tech_163)

The toilet is a place where bacteria such as Escherichia coli and Salmonella grow. We are all taught to "wash hands before and after meals", but only about 67% of people have the habit of washing hands after defecation. A study by the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom may make the remaining 33% worry.

Because this study shows that not washing hands after defecation is more dangerous than eating raw meat. The study shows that antibiotic-resistant E. coli is more likely to be spread through toilets than through undercooked chicken or other foods.

E. coli usually lives in the intestines of healthy people and animals, most of which are harmless or only cause transient diarrhea. So far, scientists have not yet known whether the antibiotic-resistant E. coli that causes blood infections was infected through food or spread from person to person.

To find out, the scientists tested samples from multiple sources, including human infected blood, human feces, animal feces, meat (including beef, pork, and chicken), fruits, and salads.

They found that antibiotic-resistant strains of E. coli extracted from human blood, feces and sewer samples are similar to each other. Most of the antibiotic-resistant E. coli from meat and animal stool samples are different from the E. coli found in human samples.

Researchers claim that E. coli is the most common cause of blood infections, with more than 40,000 cases per year in the UK alone. About 10% of these cases are caused by ESBL-resistant E. coli, and the infections it causes are difficult to cure.

Researchers found that 65% of retail chicken samples contain ESBL E. coli, but the E. coli strain is almost completely different from that in human feces, sewage and blood infections Type of discovery. This means that most of the ESBL E. coli that cause human infections do not come from eating chicken or anything else in the food chain.

On the contrary, the most likely transmission route of ESBL strains is from person to person. In other words, one person’s fecal pellets enter the mouth of another person. In this way, you will probably understand the importance of washing your hands after going to the toilet. Do you still want to be someone who doesn't wash your hands after going to the toilet?

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(Original title: Not washing your hands after poopingis quite dangerous than undercooked chicken)

(Editor in charge: Qiao Junjing_NBJ11279)