Does a Bout of E Coli Increase Getting It Again

Overview

E. coli bacteria are rod shaped. Most strains are harmless. — Due east. coli is a rod-shaped leaner.

What is E. coli?

Escherichia coli (E. coli) is a bacteria that normally lives in the intestines of both healthy people and animals. In most cases, this bacteria is harmless. It helps digest the food you eat. Even so, certain strains of E. coli can cause symptoms including diarrhea, tum pain and cramps and low-grade fever. Some Due east. coli infections can be dangerous.

What does E. coli look similar?

East. coli is a rod-shaped bacterium of the Enterobacteriaceae family unit. It tin can live in environments with or without air. These bacteria live in the intestines of healthy people and warm-blooded animals.

How many strains of E. coli crusade diarrhea?

Six dissimilar strains of E. coli are known to cause diarrhea. These strains are:

Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC): This is the bacteria near ordinarily known for E. coli food contagion. This strain is also called enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) and verocytotoxin-producing E. coli (VTEC).
Enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC): This strain is commonly known as a cause of travelers' diarrhea.
Enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC).
Enteroinvasive E. coli (EIEC).
Enteropathogenic E. coli (EPIC).
Diffusely adherent East. coli (DAEC).

How does E. coli make you sick?

The most familiar strains of Eastward. coli that make you sick practise and so past producing a toxin called Shiga. This toxin amercement the lining of your small intestine and causes your diarrhea. These strains of Due east. coli are also called Shiga toxin-producing Eastward. coli (STEC). The STEC that is most well-known in Northward America and virtually oftentimes referred to is E. coli O157:H7, or just E. coli O157

In that location are other types of STEC that are called non-O157 STEC. These strains cause similar affliction to the O157 strain but are less likely to lead to serious complications.

Who tin get infected with E. coli?

Anyone who comes into contact with a disease-causing strain of E. coli tin can become infected. People who are at greatest risk are:

The very young (newborns and children).
The elderly.
People who have weakened immune systems (for example, those with cancer, diabetes, HIV, and women who are pregnant).
People who travel to certain countries.

How common are East. coli infections?

According to the Centers for Disease Command, about 265,000 STEC infections occur in the United States each twelvemonth. The STEC O157 strain causes about 36% of these infections and not-O157 STEC strains cause the rest. The actual number of infections is idea to exist even higher because many people do not go to their healthcare provider for their affliction, many don't provide a stool sample for testing and many labs do not exam for non-O157 STEC strains.

Symptoms and Causes

What are the symptoms of an E. coli infection?

People who get infections with the STEC strain of East. coli tin can take the post-obit symptoms:

Stomach pains and cramps.
Diarrhea that may range from watery to bloody.
Fatigue.
Loss of appetite or nausea.
Vomiting.
Low fever < 101 °F/ 38.5 °C (non all people have this symptom).

How soon practise symptoms of East. coli infection develop?

You normally develop symptoms of a STEC infection within three to five days after drinking or eating foods contaminated with this E. coli bacteria. However, you could have symptoms as early as 1 24-hour interval afterward exposure up to about 10 days later.

How long do symptoms of E. coli infection last? When volition I feel better?

Your symptoms can concluding from v to seven days.

Other than diarrhea, are there serious illnesses caused by STEC strains of E. coli?

Well-nigh cases of Due east. coli infections are balmy and do not cause a serious health risk. Cases resolve on their own with balance and drinking plenty of fluids. However, some strains can cause severe symptoms and even life-threatening complications, such equally hemolytic uremic syndrome, which can lead to kidney failure and death.

What is hemolytic uremic syndrome?

Some people, particularly children age 5 and nether, who become infected with a STEC infection (the O157:H7 strain) develop a status called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). In this condition, toxins in your intestines from STEC cause diarrhea, travel into your bloodstream, destroy red blood cells and impairment your kidneys. This potentially life-threatening illness develops in most 5% to 10% of people who are infected with STEC.

Early symptoms of HUS include:

Diarrhea (ordinarily bloody).
Fever.
Stomach pain.
Vomiting.

As affliction progresses, symptoms include:

Decreased urination, blood in urine.
Feeling tired.
Pale-looking pare.
Easy bruising.
Fast heart rate.
Lightheadedness.
Sleepiness, confusion, seizures.
Kidney failure.

If you develop severe diarrhea (lasting longer than three days or y'all can't stay hydrated) or if you have bloody diarrhea, go to the infirmary for emergency care. HUS, if it develops, occurs an average of 7 days after your first symptoms occur. It is treated with 4 fluids, blood transfusions and dialysis (for a brusk period of time).

What causes an East. coli infection?

Technically, you develop an E. coli infection by ingesting (taking in by rima oris) certain strains of E. coli leaner. The bacteria travel downward your digestive tract, releases a destructive toxin, called the Shiga toxin, which amercement the lining of your pocket-sized intestine. The growing infection causes your symptoms.

How did I get infected with E. coli?

You lot come into contact and eat East. coli past eating contaminated food, drinking contaminated h2o or by touching your rima oris with your easily that are contaminated with Due east. coli leaner.

Contaminated foods

Meats: Meats become contaminated with E. coli during the slaughtering process, when E. coli in animal intestines gets onto cuts of meat and especially when meat from more 1 animal is ground together. If yous eat undercooked meat (E. coli is killed when meat is thoroughly cooked), you can go infected with E. coli.
Unpasteurized (raw) milk: Eastward. coli on a cow's udder and/or the milking equipment can get into the milk. Drinking contaminated raw milk can atomic number 82 to an E. coli infection considering information technology hasn't been heated to kill the bacteria.
Unpasteurized apple tree cider and other unpasteurized juices.
Soft cheeses fabricated from raw milk.
Fruits and veggies: Crops growing most animal farms can become contaminated when E. coli-containing creature poop combines with rainwater and the runoff enters produce fields and lands on the produce. If you don't thoroughly wash off the produce, East. coli enters your body when you eat these foods.

Contaminated water

E. coli in poop from both animals and humans tin cease up in all types of water sources including ponds, lakes, streams, rivers, wells, pond pools/kiddie pools and even in local urban center water supplies that have non been disinfected. If you lot consume contaminated water, you could become sick.

Contaminated easily

You tin swallow E. coli when it transfers from your hands straight to your oral fissure or onto the food you are eating. East. coli gets on your hands from touching poop (an invisible amount tin be on your hands). You can get poop on your hands later on irresolute your infant'south diapers, after having a bowel motion and not washing your hands completely, petting zoo or farm animals (many animals roll in or otherwise get Eastward. coli from poop on their fur) or from poop on the hands of other people infected with illness-causing E. coli.

Is Due east. coli contagious?

When you hear the word "contagious," you might immediately think of a cold or the flu – illnesses you can get from breathing in bacteria or viruses lingering in the air of a ill person's cough or sneeze.

Eastward. coli isn't an airborne illness. It's unremarkably spread past eating contaminated nutrient or drinking contaminated water that contains illness-producing strains of E. coli. (Remember not all strains of E. coli are harmful.)

E. coli can, however, be contagious and spread from person to person by the "oral-fecal route." This means that harmful strains of Eastward. coli are spread when people don't wash their hands thoroughly with lather and water after they apply the bathroom or otherwise bear on poop (afterward irresolute baby diapers or older person'south incontinence undergarments, or petting zoo or subcontract animals that may take soiled fur) and they bear on other people. People then go the invisible East. coli on their easily and consume it when it is transferred from their hands to the food they swallow or from putting their fingers in their mouth. Due east. coli spreads from person to person this way in settings such as day intendance centers and nursing homes.

Diagnosis and Tests

How is an Eastward. coli infection diagnosed?

STEC infections are diagnosed past sending a sample of your poop to a laboratory. Many labs tin exam for both STEC O157 and non-O157 STEC bacterial infections.

What steps are involved in getting a stool sample to my healthcare provider?

Phone call your healthcare provider's office. They may take you come in for an office visit and give you a sterile stool collection cup and specific directions to follow for how to collect a stool sample. They may also email specific instructions for collecting a sample at home.

Some full general instructions for collecting a stool sample at habitation include:

First, wash your hands with soap and h2o.
If it's possible to urinate (pee) before setting up for the stool collection, practise so. You lot don't want to get urine in your stool sample if you can help it.
To collect diarrhea, record a plastic bag to the toilet seat. Yous only need to collect a small corporeality – a couple tablespoons.
Place the plastic bag into a clean (washed and dried) plastic container and seal with lid.
Wash your hands with soap and water.
Write your name and engagement on the container, place within another handbag, wash your hands again and deliver to your healthcare provider on the same solar day you collect your sample. If you lot can't deliver your sample immediately, you lot tin store it in your fridge for upwards to 24 hours.
Do not collect the sample from the toilet bowl. Do not mix in toilet paper, soap or water.

When will I get the results back from my stool sample?

Most laboratories report back the results within two to four days. Your healthcare provider volition call you with the results as soon every bit they go bachelor or you may be notified of your results electronically if you accept an online medical record set up with your doctor or healthcare facility.

Direction and Treatment

How is an E. coli infection treated?

Fortunately, well-nigh E. coli infections go abroad on their own. You tin assistance yourself manage Due east. coli infection by drinking plenty of fluids to replace what you've lost through diarrhea and/or vomiting. Also, become as much rest as possible.

Antibiotics are usually not given for STEC O157 infection because they tin make your illness worse and put you at risk for hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). Besides, don't take any medicines to end diarrhea (such as bismuth subsalicylate [Pepto-Bismol®, Kaopectate®] or loperamide [Imodium®]), because it could keep the E. coli bacteria in your torso and increase your chance of HUS.

You should start to feel better nigh v to seven days from the fourth dimension y'all first developed symptoms.

When should I come across a healthcare provider about an E. coli infection?

Run across your healthcare provider about an Due east. coli infection if:

You take diarrhea for more three days and:

You lot can't keep any fluids down.
You have blood in your poop.
You are feeling very tired.
You have many bouts of airsickness.
Y'all have a fever higher than 102 °F.
You are non peeing (urinating) a lot.
Yous are losing pink colour in cheeks and inside your lower eyelids.

Prevention

How can I prevent or avoid an E. coli infection?

The virtually important thing you can do to protect confronting E. coli infection is to wash your hands – oft. Always launder your easily thoroughly earlier and after cooking and later on handling raw meat or poultry.

Launder your hands later on using the restroom, changing diapers or after contact with animals.

If y'all've been infected with East. coli, scrub your easily vigorously with lather and clean under your fingernails where leaner can get caught. Dry out your hands with paper towels instead of cloth towels to avert transferring bacteria.

You tin can also reduce your risk of an E. coli infection by following these nutrient preparation and cooking tips.

When thawing meats:

Don't defrost frozen meat unwrapped on the counter.
Keep frozen meat in a separate plastic bag (for example, a plastic grocery bag) when thawing.

When prepping foods:

Don't rinse meat before cooking. Information technology's not necessary. Washing the meat could spread bacterial to nearby surfaces, utensils and other food.
Utilize a plastic or ceramic cutting board to cut raw meat. These materials tin be cleaned more easily and thoroughly than wooden cutting boards.
Don't "cantankerous-contaminate" a prepping surface. If yous had raw meat or chicken on a prepping surface, such as a cutting lath, wash information technology thoroughly with soap and hot water earlier putting another type of food (such as a raw vegetable) on information technology. Amend yet, use dissimilar cutting boards for the foods you are preparing.
Rinse all raw fruits and vegetables under cold running water before eating them. It'due south ok to scrub firm produce only don't apply detergent or soap.

When cooking and serving meats:

Cook all meat well (undercooked meat is another source of Due east. coli contamination). Cooking foods well kills bacteria.
Use a nutrient thermometer when cooking meat, and melt all meat and other foods to the safe temperatures recommended past the United states Department of Agriculture (see references for link).
Don't put a cooked hamburger on a plate that had raw ground beefiness or whatever other raw meat on it.
Refrigerate leftovers right away.

Outlook / Prognosis

What can I expect if I have an E. coli infection?

It's important to continue in mind that most strains of E. coli are harmless. They alive naturally in your intestinal tract and help digest your food. Sometimes, even so, you lot may eat food or drink water that is contaminated with illness-causing E. coli. Sometimes a mild Eastward. coli infection will cause a brief tour of diarrhea. Other strains of E. coli, the Shiga toxin-producing East. coli (STEC), crusade bloody diarrhea, airsickness, stomach pain and cramps. If you lot are otherwise healthy, you should recover from an Eastward. coli infection within well-nigh a week without any treatment.

Although hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) is a serious complication, it is rare and occurs in near 5% to 10% of people. With early treatment and proper care, people can recover from HUS.

Living With

How long does E. coli survive outside the torso?

E. coli can survive exterior the body from hours to months. It can alive in soil for about 130 days. E. coli survives in river water for 27 days and in cattle slurry for 10 days. On stainless steel, Due east. coli was shown to survive for more lx days. Information technology survives for at least 12 hours on wooden cutting boards.

Many factors touch how long Eastward. coli can live exterior the trunk including temperature, presence of h2o, availability of nutrients, pH and solar radiation.

How does E. coli cause a urinary tract infection?

Urinary tract infections are sometimes caused when E. coli from your gastrointestinal tract get into your urinary tract. This can happen more easily in women because the anus (where poop exits your body) is located shut to the urethra (the tube from which urine exits the body). Due east. coli bacteria can travel upwards the urethra to the float and even up to the ureters and kidneys. You may have been told – if you are a woman – to ever "wipe from front to back." This is and then you don't accidently spread Eastward. coli leaner from your anus to your urethra.

The most common urinary tract infections acquired by E. coli are a bladder infection (cystitis), infection of the urethra (urethritis) and kidney infection.

Are there better nutrient choices I tin make every bit I commencement to feel better after an E. coli infection?

Drinkable clear liquids, such as broths, clear sodas and h2o. Stick with bland, low-cobweb foods like toast, rice, plain crackers and applesauce. Stay away from loftier-fiber foods, fatty foods and dairy products.

When can I return to work or school if I've been infected with East. coli?

Check with your healthcare provider. If your infection was part of a local outbreak, your local state health department may accept specific instructions most when it's safe to be around groups of people.

A note from Cleveland Clinic

The best and easiest way to avoid getting an Due east. coli infection is to oftentimes wash your hands with soap and water. Launder your hands before and later handling foods (including prepping, cooking and serving foods), later using the bathroom, subsequently touching animals (especially farm or zoo animals), subsequently changing diapers and later on shaking easily or being touched past others (you lot never know what their hands take touched). Washing your hands can non just prevent contracting E. coli, but too many other infectious disease that are spread from person to person. Make frequent paw washing a new habit.

Keep in mind that most strains of Eastward. coli are harmless. Even if yous do come down with the STEC O157 strain, your symptoms volition resolve on their own within 5 to vii days. Drink enough of fluids to stay hydrated and get plenty of rest.

Exercise call your healthcare provider if you have diarrhea (and especially bloody diarrhea) for more than than three days, have problem keeping fluids downward and have continuous bouts of vomiting and accept a fever. These symptoms could mean you are developing serious complications that could lead to kidney failure.

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Source: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/16638-e-coli-infection