Iowa Reports Jump in E. coli cases
As two children sickened by E. coli O157:H7 remain hospitalized in Iowa from complications of their infections, the Iowa Department of Public Health has issued a press release alerting the public to a statewide spike in confirmed E. coli cases since late September.
The 29 cases compare to the five-year average of 18.4 confirmed E. coli cases for the same period, the health department said. Twenty-two have involved children aged 12 and younger and several of those children have been hospitalized.
Officials confirmed that only a cluster of the recent infections — found in the eastern part of the state and all reported in the past three weeks — share some common exposures. They say several things associated with the cluster increased the risk of contact with E. coli O157:H7 bacteria, “such as drinking unpasteurized apple cider, eating fresh, unwashed apples and eating ground beef.”
Two of the children sickened by the pathogen in the most recent cluster of cases remain at University of Iowa Children’s Hospital. Parents for the 7-year-old girl and the 5-year-old boy told the Gate City Daily newspaper in Keokuk, Iowa, that the kids separately visited a business in Lee County Iowa, where they drank unpasteurized apple cider from a vendor who was demonstrating how to press apples. One child consumed the cider on Oct. 4, the other on Oct. 5, but health officials have said DNA fingerprints of their illnesses do not match.
Both children have developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS, and have been treated with blood transfusions, kidney dialysis and other procedures during their long hospital stays.
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Tags: E. coli
