If you read the whole article, you'll see that in fact, the burgers were so contaminated with e-coli that they could have easily caused infection simply through contact with surfaces in the kitchen. In an experiment with a similar strain, scientists found that even after washing a cutting board with soap, it was still contaminated with e-coli, and when they wiped it with a towel, that got contaminated too.
To make matters worse, in a warm kitchen, e-coli will double once every 45 minutes.
In other words, once you've got one of these little biological weapons in your kitchen, if you're not wearing a hazmat suit and handling it like it's an ebola sample, you could get infected.
If my differential equations class taught me anything it is the fact that the growth curve for population hits a saturation point where there is not enough food/area/resources to sustain that kind of growth. Not saying that you can't get sick but I don't know if the hazmat suit is a necessity.
According to the article the bacteria can also contaminate surfaces in the kitchen. For instance, if you form hamburger patties on a cutting board, even if you wash the board with soap and water, there may still be live bacteria capable of infecting you on it.
For that reason, they recommend you also wash kitchen surfaces with a dilute bleach solution.
Re:The Burger That Shattered Her Life
by baguasquirrel on Sunday October 04, 2009 @03:37PM
(#860524)
I remember a while back that wood cutting boards tended to have much lower bacteria counts than plastic ones did. I keep mine in good condition so they last a while and I don't have to be cutting down trees all the time.
Anyone that gets infected by this strain (or any other) hasn't been cooking their meat properly. Or the hamburger chain hasn't.
Rare steak is a different matter. Pathogenic bacteria will only be present on the surface of the meat. Cooking the surface of the meat kills the bacteria. But in the case of minced beef, the bacteria is mixed through the whole of the meat.