Deadly disease caused by raw milk has already put 19 states on alert

In the United States, officials have repeatedly pointed out that unpasteurized raw milk can carry dangerous and potentially deadly bacteria.

Today, however, it seems that this information falls in the ear of a deaf person. Epidemics caused by raw milk are on the rise and a new warning from the Centers for Disease and Infection Control (CDC) has put 19 states on maximum alert.

In late 2018, a New York resident was diagnosed with an infectious disease called brucellosis after drinking raw milk from the Miller's Biodiversity Farm located in Pennsylvania.

Now the CDC has confirmed that the raw milk from this farm actually contains a rare strain of Brucella bacterium, RB51, which is resistant to first-line antibiotics and may be difficult to diagnose due to its flu-like symptoms.

In researching the sale of this product, investigators found it in more than a third of the US states, including California, Connecticut, Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, thus putting an undetermined number of people in danger.

This is the third time that raw milk has caused brucellosis since 2017, when the CDC was to warn the public of the risks "for the second time in three months".

The sad thing is that these outbreaks are entirely preventable, if only people listened to them.

Since pasteurization was discovered in the middle of the 19th century, it saves lives. By heating the milk to a sufficiently high temperature, we can kill Brucella and other pathogens that lurk in raw milk, such as bovine tuberculosis and typhoid fever, which claimed hundreds of thousands of lives over time.

Nowadays, the milk you usually find in supermarkets is pasteurized to prevent dangerous bacterial growth.

Nevertheless, some people are starting to avoid these products. Proponents of raw milk claim that pasteurized products are at the origin of allergies and contain fewer enzymes and healthy nutrients than raw foods.

Nevertheless, there is little scientific evidence to support these arguments and most experts warn against the consumption of raw dairy products.

"Pasteurization milk does not cause lactose intolerance or allergic reactions," one reads on the FDA's website.

"Raw milk and pasteurized milk can cause allergic reactions in people who are sensitive to milk protein, and pasteurization does not reduce the nutritional value of milk."

On the other hand, the risks related to raw milk are obvious. On the whole food-related diseases related to dairy products, raw milk and raw cheese are responsible for not less than 96%.

This means that unpasteurized dairy products cause 840 times more illnesses and 45 times more hospitalizations than their pasteurized counterparts.

It is not uncommon for people who drink raw milk to contract rare diseases that, if left untreated, can sometimes result in paralysis, stroke, kidney failure and even death.

As a result, about half of the US states have banned the sale of raw milk. Although this tactic is not infallible, the CDC says that as more states allow the sale of raw milk, the number of badociated homes has also increased.

From 1993 to 2012, raw milk was responsible for 127 outbreaks, including nearly 2,000 individual cases and 144 hospitalizations. Most of these cases were caused by Brucella, Campylobacter, certain types of E. coli, or Salmonella.

Unfortunately, in recent years, these outbreaks have begun to occur more and more. According to the CDC, from 2007 to 2012, the average number of annual outbreaks related to raw milk was four times higher than that of the previous thirteen years.

In 2010, during a particularly serious epidemic, 30 people were hospitalized with goat raw milk. And just last summer, a particularly nasty strain of E. coli called O157: H7 has caused kidney failure in at least four victims in Tennessee.

Even worse, young children are the most exposed. According to the CDC, 59% of these raw milk outbreaks involved at least one child under five.

In fact, children aged one to four years account for 38% of salmonellosis cases and 28% of E. coli cases related to raw milk.

"These studies indicate that raw milk epidemics continue to threaten the health of the population," concludes the CDC.

"You should only eat pasteurized milk and dairy products and look for the word" pasteurized "on the product labels."