Category: News
Date: 15.08.2005
Printable version
Real Story with Fiona Bruce, Â鶹ԼÅÄ ONE, Monday
15 August 2005, 7.30-8.00pm
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This week's edition of Real StoryÌýinvestigates the safety of meat sold in the UK.
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The programme commissioned a special survey of chicken which revealed significant numbers of samples were contaminated with superbugs.
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Out of 64 British samples more than half were contaminated with multi drug resistant E.coli, immune to the effects of three or more antibiotics.
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And out of the total of 147 samples of UK and overseas chicken purchased from British suppliers, 53 were contaminated with E.coli germs that were resistant to an important antibiotic, trimethoprim, which is used to treat bladder infections.
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Anna Sawkins suffered from recurrent bladder infections caused by E.coli.
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She describes how she "went back to the doctors hundreds of times and nothing was getting any better."
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Dr Mike Millar, leader of the infection control team at Barts and The London NHS Trust, says E.coli is the most common cause of bladder infection in women:
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"The infection can spread to the kidneys and make the young women very ill and in the worst cases can lead to kidney damage and long term consequences such as the need for renal dialysis in the worst cases."
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He found the Real Story survey results worrying: "We've known for many years that there have been outbreaks of bladder infections in different parts of the world but we haven't known where the germs have been coming from and potentially food could be a source."
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The Real Story survey also found that one in 25 of the chicken samples tested were contaminated with a form of VRE, or Vancomycin Resistant Enteroccci.
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According to Stuart Levy of the World Health Organisation this bug can cause "local abcesses, it can get into the blood stream and cause what is called septicaemia. It can be life-threatening, that's why we want to treat it."
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And that's also the problem, VRE is difficult to treat because it has become so resistant to antibiotics. Whilst the numbers of people suffering from VRE in the UK are still small they are on the rise.
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The Health Protection Agency recognises the problem but pointed out that even though VRE in chickens can lead to VRE in the gut of humans, it mainly only affects people who are already ill in hospital.
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More work would be needed to confirm the exact strain of VRE detected to assess the extent of any threat posed to public health.
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Reporter Morland Sanders investigates the link between the presence of these superbugs in meat and the use of antibiotics in farming.
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He discovers there is a flourishing black market in illegal imports of antibiotics and reveals how easy it is for farmers to ignore the law and buy them without a vet's prescription.
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WhileÌýbacteria in chickenÌýis killed if the meat is cooked properly and hygienically, one in threeÌýpeople still get food poisoning every year.
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Real Story found significant numbers of the chicken tested in the survey had food poisoning bugs on it that were antibiotic resistant strains.
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The programme features people who have been seriously ill from food poisoning, some still suffering long-term effects,Ìýand finds out what happens when the antibiotics given toÌýpeople to makeÌýthem better simply don't work.
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The British Poultry Council says standards are improving through the industry and says that the Â鶹ԼÅÄ's snapshot survey isn't detailed enough to raise any new issues to concern the industry.
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The council says studies by the Veterinary Laboratory Agency consistently show much lower percentages of samples with resistant organisms.
