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Escherichia coli

Question
Dear ladies and gentlemen,
Echerichia coli has been found on my tonsils. I have to have my tonsils removed now, as it has not disappeared with the antibiotics.
I would like to know, if Escherichia coli can be transmitted via oral sex with the partner, because I do not have any other complaints such as diarrhea.
Is there the possibilitiy that the bacterium has infected my tonsils via not toroughly washed fruits and vegetables?
With best regards and many thanks
Answer
Hello,
E. coli is a typical bacterium of the bowel. Most representatives of this species are not illness causing, however numerous different illness causing strains also exist. E. coli belongs to the most important causing agents of human infectious diseases.
If one knows that, one can understand that the answer to your question is very simple and at the same time thus hardly possible.
1. Yes, E. coli can come to the mouth and throat area via many different ways. Normally, the gastric acid and the bowel mucosa can manage to keep the germ out of the blood stream but stays in the inside of the gastro-intestinal tract and is excreted via the stool.
2. That one does not become ill at all from E. coli, is not unusual (see above). However, in the oral cavity the finding is not "normal". However, I cannot decide how important or even requiring treatment the detected germ is for you. This is different, however, if in different samples (different withdrawls) the same germ is found again and again.
With best regards,
Prof. Dr. TOF Wagner
02.12.2013