MODULE 4 LESSON 3

POST TASK
Read the case
and answer
the questions
below.
Santi is a three-year old healthy and active little boy. His family took a trip to the beach
several hours from their home. His parents had booked a suit in a beautiful beach resort and
the children were so eager to get there that they didn’t even want to stop for lunch during the
four-hour drive. The parents compromised and decided to pick up some hamburgers from a
drive through fast food restaurant just off the highway.
● Initially, Santi felt fine after eating his hamburger, but three days after their arrival at the
resort, he started complaining of a stomach ache, and he was running a fever of 38̊C.
● The next day he began to have diarrhea, and the following day his mother was alarmed to
see blood in the diarrhea.
● Growing worried, she left her older daughter and her husband at the hotel and drove Santi
to the nearest hospital emergency room. At the hospital, the physician then ordered blood
tests and a stool culture and gave Santi an empiric course of antibiotics.
• Like many commercially produced food products, the hamburger that Santi ate contained meat
from many different animals raised in confined animal feeding operations. Lakes of animal
manure frequently surround these factory farms and during slaughter, workers are often forced
to rapidly separate the useable meat from waste.

01 What signs and symptoms are Santi experiencing?

02 In what way the hamburger may have been

contaminated?
03 What method of transmission took place in the case of
Santi>

04 What portal of entry did the bacteria use to cause this

infection?
 1. What signs and symptoms are Santi
experiencing?
Santi began to experience a symptom of stomach ache three days
after their arrival at the resort. He also had a noticeable sign of infection
by having a fever of 38̊C. He experienced diarrhea on the next day and
on the following day, the stool is already accompanied with blood
(dysentery) which can be serious signs of bacterial or parasitic
infection. The type of microbes that affect Santi take a few days to
make him sick after an exposure. This illness is probably from the
strains of E. coli or specifically the STEC type, Campylobacter or other
protozoans from contaminated food that show similar signs and
symptoms of stomach cramps, fever, and bloody diarrhea.
 2. In what way the hamburger may have been
contaminated?
The meat contained in the hamburger are processed from various animals raised in
confined animal feeding which increases the risk of contamination. When these animals are
slaughtered and processed, the bacteria like Escherichia coli in their intestines can get on the
meat and became pathogenic when ingested by the host. And in this area, it is surrounded by
lakes of animal manures or waste which can be significant sources of protozoans and bacteria
like Salmonella. The said unsanitary conditions of separating useable meat from waste by the
workers offer a breading ground for the bacteria and diseases. From animal waste,
contaminated water, and worker’s hands, cross-contamination took place. These microbes
taint the meat and therefore caused the hamburger to be contaminated. Also, if the meat is not
thoroughly cooked in this fast food restaurant, high risk of infection could arise.
 3. What method of transmission took
place in the case of Santi?
Based on the situation of Santi, he acquired a foodborne
illness from the infectious organisms that contaminated the
meat in the production process. Vehicle transmission took
place because food (hamburger) was used as a medium to
transmit the disease agents or pathogens into the person’s body
that brings on stomach ache, fever, and bloody diarrhea to
Santi as the susceptible host.
4. What portal of entry did the bacteria use
to cause this infection?
Santi encountered the pathogens from the food that he ate then
it gained access into an anatomical site or the host tissue to
cause an infection in just a span of three days.
By ingestion of contaminated food, the microbes first enter into
the host orally. Then these organisms reach and target the
vulnerable portals of entry of the gastrointestinal tract and
inflames the intestines because the observed blood in stool
employs that there is bleeding somewhere in the digestive tract.
This bloody diarrhea (dysentery) is a type of gastroenteritis.