Infection most typically occurs by eating contaminated food, particularly raw or undercooked meat. Infection can also occur after eating any product contaminated with STEC, including lettuce, alfalfa sprouts, salami, and raw (unpasteurized) milk, juice, or cider. Infected people can spread E. coli to other people if they do not wash their hands
Colonization: Definition. Colonization: presence of a microorganism on/in a host, with growth and multiplication of the organism, but without interaction between host and organism (no clinical expression, no immune response). Carrier: individual which is colonized + more. Subclinical or unapparent infection: presence of. Escherichia coli is recovered in the sputum of up to 25% of patients with CF, yet little is known about the epidemiology or clinical impact of infection. Methods: We studied patients attending a Canadian adult CF clinic who had positive sputum cultures for E coli from 1978 to 2016.