The Western media have made much of Britain's mad cow disease. But a more lethal epidemic has raged in Japan with far less notice -- spread by a bacteria that, unlike the cause of mad cow disease, is passed via casual human contact. PNS associate editor Yoichi C. Shimatsu, former editor of the Japan Times Weekly, is an investigative reporter based in Tokyo.

TOKYO -- One recent hot summer's night I had a tequila and hamburger at an outdoor cafe and for the next week of sweaty gut-aches somehow managed not to die.

I am one of nearly 9,000 Japanese infected since May by the lethal bacteria known as E. coli 0157:H7. So far the epidemic has claimed seven lives -- more than the fatalities caused by Britain's mad cow disease (BSE). And unlike the prion protein behind BSE, E. coli 0157: H7 is contagious, passed via casual human contact.

Western media reports of the epidemic have been scanty at best, and guilty of cultural bias. To explain the disease's spread in Japan, most have focused on Japanese eating preferences for raw fish and meat. One British newspaper cited raw eel sushi, not realizing that Japanese never, ever eat raw eel. The far more likely vehicles, however, are toilets, bath water and kitchen cutting boards.

But these are secondary sources of contamination. What about the primary source? Japanese health authorities claim that it cannot be identified -- a claim most Japanese media have not questioned. As an investigative reporter who has spent several weeks researching the epidemic in other countries, however, I'm convinced the source is tainted beef -- very likely imported hamburger meat. Like a growing number of Japanese citizens, I believe the government is foot-dragging on the epidemic -- possibly to protect the meat industry.

Ever since the first cases were reported in Canada in 1978, every identified cause of E. coli 0157 has been linked to cattle, or more precisely, the contaminated feces of dairy cows. An outbreak in Helena, Montana in 1994 was linked to improperly pasteurized milk, from feces on cows' udders. Unboiled apple cider caused an outbreak in Massachusetts in 1991 -- cows were pastured in the affected apple orchard. Vegetables grown on fields fertilized with cow manure have also been linked to the disease. Water contaminated by cattle has infected thousands in South Africa and Swaziland.

In 60 percent of reported cases in the U.S., the immediate cause of 0157 poisoning was infected hamburger meat. In 1991, the disease hit 700 people in Washington, Oregon and California and killed four children. The culprit was the hamburgers at Jack in the Box fast food outlets.

Researchers with the U.S. Department of Agriculture have determined that dairy cows are the biological host of E. coli 0157 (as they are for mad cow disease). The gastrointestinal tract of milk cows is the preferred breeding ground for E. coli -- both the completely harmless variety and deadly 0157. Once their milk-producing capability dwindles, dairy cows are routinely slaughtered and their carcasses ground into hamburger.

The sudden outbreak of the epidemic in Japan could only have been caused by a single major source, probably a massive shipment of infected hamburger meat, similar to the four and a half tons destroyed two years ago at a contaminated Colorado ranch.

President Clinton recently signed long-overdue regulations upgrading meat inspection from the "sight and smell" methods in place since 1906. The new rules, however, are seriously flawed because even the most sophisticated bacteriological testing methods depend on spot checks. Beef carcasses cannot be tested in their entirety.

With a vaccine for cattle years and possibly decades away, the only effective method for containing the epidemic is a strict quarantine -- regular testing of every animal, eradication of infected herds, incineration of carcasses and scorched-earth decontamination of affected ranches. In an era of globalized food distribution, the World Trade Organization needs to adopt a draconian product liability code against slaughterhouses and wholesalers that export dirty meat.

But consumer safety is not high on the meat industry's agenda. In Europe, a former farm commission official recently revealed that the EU issued orders to spread disinformation downplaying the threat of mad cow disease. In the U.S., the cattle industry was powerful enough to ensure that beef would be among the first foreign products that gained access to the lucrative Japanese market. It may well be influential enough to discourage publicizing all the facts about the virulence and scale of the 0157 contagion.

While causing painful colitis, diarrhea and bloody stools, the infectious disease's more serious damage is done to the kidneys, especially in children, with a condition called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). A monitoring program in Utah over the past 20 years indicates a five percent death rate among victims. Among survivors, the damage is so severe that 10 percent will need dialysis or kidney transplants after five years.

According to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, 0157 poisoning strikes 20,000 people minimally and 300 deaths a year in the U.S. and the number is steadily rising. (CDC notes further that many cases are misdiagnosed.)

Japanese are only now recovering from last year's nightmare of the Tokyo subway gassing. This summer the specter of terror lies closer to home -- the threat of tainted food on the dinner table.