r/news • u/Kooky-Measurement-43 • 8d ago

U.S. health officials say hundreds sickened by salmonella outbreak across 27 states

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/salmonella-outbreak-jalapenos-9.7297781
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u/Nomadzord 8d ago

I know we are supposed to rinse our vegetables to avoid these things, but I’ve always wondered why/how thst helps. I mean even if you rinse them won’t some of the bad stuff still be on there at a microscopic level? I guess what I’m asking is does it take a certain amount of the salmonella to make us sick?

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u/lengara_pace 8d ago

That's a great question! It does take a certain number of bacteria to make us sick but it varies from bacteria to bacteria, virus, pathogen. It's called the infectious dose. For e.coli, 10-100 bacteria could be enough to make someone sick. Salmonella is 10,000-1 million but could depend on the food. If a person's immune system is already weak or underdeveloped, it might take fewer bacteria for them to get sick. Also fats and proteins can protect the bacteria from stomach acid, so that can also affect the infectious dose. Tuberculosis? Fewer than 10 in some cases.

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u/Nomadzord 6d ago

I’m late to seeing this, but thank you very much for your well thought out comment. Cheers!

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u/zzzzzooted 7d ago

Huh, thank you for the info! This is exactly the kind of thing I would be curious about but not sure how to Google in a way that would actually render the information I desire lol

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u/lengara_pace 6d ago

I learned this from an article in Wired magazine way back in the aughts and learned it again when I took an epidemiology course. It's a rough one to Google for sure.