Is E. coli contagious?

Is E. coli contagious?

When you hear the word “contagious,” you might immediately think of a cold or the flu – illnesses you can get from breathing in bacteria or viruses lingering in the air of a sick person’s cough or sneeze.

E. coli isn’t an airborne illness. It’s usually spread by eating contaminated food or drinking contaminated water that contains illness-producing strains of E. coli. (Remember not all strains of E. coli are harmful.)

E. coli can, however, be contagious and spread from person to person by the “oral-fecal route.” This means that harmful strains of E. coli are spread when people don’t wash their hands thoroughly with soap and water after they use the bathroom or otherwise touch poop (after changing baby diapers or older person’s incontinence undergarments, or petting zoo or farm animals that may have soiled fur) and they touch other people. People then get the invisible E. coli on their hands and swallow it when it is transferred from their hands to the food they eat or from putting their fingers in their mouth. E. coli spreads from person to person this way in settings such as day care centers and nursing homes.