Does human waste contain e coli?
Definitely. There are large numbers of E coli in the bowels of all humans, and inevitably they will be excreted. They are necessary for normal function of our bowel. It is precisely because they are so common that they are used as a test for fecal contamination. They are basically symbiotes with mammals – they live only inside mammals, and mammals need them for healthy digestions. Hence water contaminated with e coli is water contaminated with fecal waste. Why the panic about them? Firstly, they act as a marker – if there is e coli there, there are other fecal bact4eria there, and the others may not be so useful. Secondly, e coli can turn bad. There are billions of different variants of e coli, and some of them (the most famous being known as O:157) are definitely not benign. I fund a useful page here: http://people.ku.edu/%7Ejbrown/ecoli.
