The incubation period for E. coli can be between one and 8 days. Usually with E. coli O157:H7 (the strain of E. coli most often associated with outbreaks) people get sick within 48 to 72 hours. This is significant for many reasons:
- Anyone who contracts an E. coli infection will have to remember what he or she at up to 8 days before. Even remembering back 3 days can be difficult. It is the job of the epidemiologist in an outbreak to interview people who were sickened and try to determine the source of the outbreak.
- With such a long E. coli incubation period, the food that was the source of the E. coli infection is probably gone, either totally consumed or thrown away. This makes tracing an outbreak to its source far more difficult, but not impossible. Each E. coli outbreak has a genetically-unique E. coli bacteria associated with it. That means an E. coli O157:H7 bacteria that sickened people in one outbreak will not be the same as an E. coli O157:H7 bacteria that sickened people in another outbreak. Read about genetic fingerprinting and PulseNET and how genetic fingerprinting was used to uncover the spinach-E. coli outbreak of the fall of 2006. When most of the people sickened by a genetically-unique E. coli bacteria ate the same food or ate at the same restaurant, that food or restaurant is considered by the CDC to be associated or linked to the outbreak.
- If someone is sickened at the beginning of an outbreak, the appropriate testing may not be done to link their case to the outbreak. In one case, a young child died at the beginning of the outbreak. Her stool samples were thrown away before genetic testing could be done on them. This added to the grief of the parents, who will never know with certainty why their child died.
- With the E. coli incubation period being even a few days long, people going to the doctor with symptoms of E. coli may not think it was from something they ate (certainly not from something they ate days before). Because the symptoms are flu-like and similar to so many other illnesses, the E. coli infection may go undiagnosed. Even worse, the doctor may prescribe medication not knowing the illness is E. coli and make the situation worse. Some antibiotics may heighten the risk of developing hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) from the E. coli infection. Hemolytic uremic syndrome is the leading cause of kidney failure in children in the United States and is often fatal. Hemolytic uremic syndrome is also often fatal for the elderly and people with compromised immune systems. When someone dies after contracting an E. coli infection, it is often from HUS-related kidney failure.
For information about E. coli, please see the following:
Pritzker | Ruohonen has a national practice and represents E. coli victims throughout the United States. To contact the firm, please call toll-free at 1-888-377-8900 or submit the online contact form.
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