It did not take long after the Portland Water Bureau recommended that residents should boil all tap water used for drinking, food preparation, tooth brushing and ice for all the retail store shelves to be stripped bare of all bottled water. Some infections with the newly developed E. coli O157:H7 are not your regular diarrhea. Many cases are mild, but there are many fatalities on record.

Hemolytic uremic syndrome is a life-threatening condition usually treated in an intensive care unit. Blood transfusions and kidney dialysis are often required. Even with intensive care, the death rate for hemolytic uremic syndrome is 3% to 5%. Some survivors may have permanent kidney and other problems.

You can read the technical details on the government website. It is not very convenient to have to boil the water for a full minute, and then wait for it to cool before you can use it.

When they say: Unfortunately, there is no one treatment that has been found to be effective against E. coli O157:H7 they are not entirely truthful.

There is another way: put 4-6 drops of detoxified iodine in each gallon of water before you drink it. Iodine has been used to prevent infections up until the Age of Antibiotic, and it seems the mainstream medical system has not gone back to the trusted old method. To make sure you are not being exposed to any potential problems with E. coli or any number of other environmental threats, have a bottle of our iodine tincture in your emergency preparedness kit.