Kentucky E. coli Cases
The Buffalo Trace District Health Department has confirmed three cases of E. coli poisoning in Bracken and Fleming counties in Kentucky. All three were hospitalized. E. coli poisoning can lead to hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), the leading cause of kidney failure in the United States. Children can be in the hospital for months recovering from HUS. Some children never totally recover, and each year children die. Recently, a boy in New Jersey died from E. coli-related HUS.
According to Tim Stump, director of the district health department, The three cases have been confirmed as E. coli, but the sub-type of E. coli has not been determined. The sub-type of E. coli most often associated with HUS is E. coli O157:H7, although other sub-types of E. coli can cause HUS. Also, genetic fingerprinting will have to be done to determine if the cases were caused by genetically-similar E. coli bacteria, which would suggest that the cases are connected to each other and a common source.
Health investigators are looking for the source of these E. coli cases. The first step is stool samples for testing purposes. This has been done. Next, epidemiologists interview the children if they are well enough and old enough and the children’s parents regarding what the children ate, did, who they played with, basically everything that happened in their lives in the days before the children manifested symptoms of E. coli.
Any connection to a food product and/or restaurant is investigated. The combination of epidemiological research and microbiological testing sometimes leads to the source of an E. coli outbreak. Often, a source is never found.
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