StrongButKind
Posts: 136
Joined: 10/15/2004 Status: offline
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I am not eager to get dragged into this, but the misinformation seems important to highlight. As I know immunogenetics, I have enough infectious diseases knowledge to get by, but would prefer all the people on here, myself included, defer to an infectious disease specialist if one is willing to comment. I don't know how this became a discussion of e. coli and c. difficile, which are very different infectious agents and quite unrelated to the use of butt plugs. E. coli is present in fecal matter in humans. C. difficile generally is not in detectable/transmittable quantities, except those with some infection (and not in all infected patients). Generalizing, though, about E. Coli is not sensible, as it has many, many phenotypes which vary from the beneficial strains ubiquitous in humans to dangerous strains that are not similar in danger to the common influenza, but rather can cause serious and potentially life-threatening conditions such as hemolytic-uremic syndrome and hemmorhagic colitis. These conditions, while more common in neonates, the elderly, and immunocompromised patients, certainly occur at significant rates in otherwise healthy patients exposed to certain E. Coli strains. The bad strains are a very dangerous infectious agent, not to be taken lightly. One specific strain of generally low to moderate symptomatic severity is the "Montezuma's Revenge" sort of contaminated drinking water E. Coli is usually Enterotoxigenic E. Coli (ETEC). Most patients develop immunity to ETEC within a week of exposure. A few other strains are somewhat common in developing countries. Of more concern, particularly in developed countries, is Enterohemmorhagic E. Coli (EHEC), common in cattle which can lead to spread to humans, where it can cause HUS, enterohemmorhagic colitis, and other complications. To clarify the dangers, patients with HUS have roughly 10% instance of chronic kidney failure, necessitating dialysis and transplant, and roughly 3% die from the condition. So E. Coli ranges from a normal, helpful part of human biology to a very dangerous and deadly pathogen. Any generalizations about it, as have been included in posts here, are misinformation that should be disregarded. For legitimate information, contact an infectious diseases faculty member at an academic medical center. I will not go into C. Difficile -- I have no idea why it was mentioned. As for the use of butt plugs, they seem no more related to these conditions than other anal play. Many infectious agents, are transmitted via fecal-oral transmission (and presumably fecal-rectal, though the research there is very spotty as that is probably mostly combined to alternative communities and not captured in mainstream epidemiologic studies), so that is a way to spread disease. I doubt anyone would be able to produce evidence it is more dangerous than oral, sexual, or bloodborne routes of infection, but participating in it certainly does increase your overall risk of infection. Combining any fecal matter with open bloody wounds is certainly very dangerous, in case anyone is into that. One other note, someone referred to urine as sterile -- that is absolutely incorrect. While it is not normally the source of infectious agents, and is generally aseptic, it is sterile when produced by the kidneys, unless the kidneys have an infection. It can then acquire infectious agents from the bladder, urethra, or skin on its way out. BK Virus, Hepatitis B, CMV, E. Coli (and other UTI infectious agents) and other pathogens have all been found in urine. While it is not especially dangerous, it is hardly consistently sterile. It could only be correctly described as usually or normally sterile.
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