A double whammy.For 497 Seattle-area patrons of the last-food restaurant Jack in the Box, the cheer vanished from their holiday season last year when they or their children developed gastroenteritis gastroenteritis: see enteritis. gastroenteritis Acute infectious syndrome of the stomach lining and intestines. Symptoms include diarrhea, vomiting, and abdominal cramps. from eating hamburgers contaminated with a strain of the bacterium Escherichia coli Escherichia coli (ĕsh'ərĭk`ēə kō`lī), common bacterium that normally inhabits the intestinal tracts of humans and animals, but can cause infection in other parts of the body, especially the urinary tract. . Doctors now report that three of the infected children died from hemolytic uremic syndrome hemolytic uremic syndrome n. A syndrome in which hemolytic anemia and thrombocytopenia occur with acute renal failure, marked in children by sudden gastrointestinal bleeding, urine that contains red blood cells and is scanty in volume, and (HUS) soon after the poisoning. Thirty-five other children also developed HUS, which produces kidney failure kidney failure or renal failure Partial or complete loss of kidney function. Acute failure causes reduced urine output and blood chemical imbalance, including uremia. Most patients recover within six weeks. , anemia, and low platelet counts. Ellis Avner and his colleagues at the University of Washingtons Children's Hospital and Medical Center in Seattle described the cases in November at a meeting of the American Society of Nephrology nephrology Branch of medicine dealing with kidney function and diseases. An understanding of kidney physiology is important not only in treating kidney disease but in knowing the effect of drugs, diet, and hypertension on kidney disease, and vice versa. in Boston. The disease strikes primarily children. "This was the largest reported outbreak of E. coli-associated HUS," says Avner. Typically, as in this outbreak, about 10 percent of patients with E. coli-related gastroenteritis develop HUS, he says. The future for some HUS survivors looks grim. A French study presented at the conference found that researchers have underestimated HUS' long-term effects, Avner says. Marie-E Gagnadoux and her colleagues at the Enfants-Malades Hospital in Paris followed 25 HUS patients for 15 to 28 years. While still children, they all appeared cured, but 15 went on to develop serious renal problems, the researchers reported. Avner predicts that 5 to 10 percent of the Seattle-area patients will suffer chronic kidney failure Chronic Kidney Failure Definition Chronic kidney failure occurs when disease or disorder damages the kidneys so that they are no longer capable of adequately removing fluids and wastes from the body or of maintaining the proper level of certain , 30 to 40 percent will have milder symptoms, and the others should fare well. |
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