I am very impressed with Valerie's research to discover this
information.  I am just ruminating here, and wondering about
possibilities, but:

I wonder if the source of the Enterobacter sakazakii in the infant
formula which killed some (2? 3?) infants in the U.S. in the last few
years was ever definitely established.  In all the information about
the subsequent recall, I don't remember any authoritative information
on source of contamination being given.

If a source has been postulated, I wonder if it has been proved.  Like
the Hep-A case at Chi-Chi's (widely publicized in the news), the
original vector postulated (an employee who failed to wash his hands)
has been discounted in favor of a different source (green onions, but
how did they become contaminated?).

Of course, it should be that once the E. sakazakii is processed to
create this new polymer it no longer has the ability to create an E.
sakazakii infection, if the processing were 100% successful in
filtering out any original organisms that failed to process.  But could
it create an illness, clinical or sub-clinical, with some of the same
symptoms?  An illness which couldn't be cultured as E. sakazakii?  One
would assume this has been investigated very carefully, but scientists
have been known to make some astonishing errors of oversight.

If anyone knows for a fact, not rumor, what the source of the E.
sakazakii was in the contaminated infant formula in the U.S., I would
like to know.  It would be enlightening in any case to know how
something like this is still able to slip by our safeguards.

Arly Helm, MS, IBCLC

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