Clinical manifestations
- Usually 2-4 days for STEC O157 and similar for most strains of non-O157 STEC
- Gastroenteritis:
- May be asymptomatic
- Non-bloody diarrhoea, fever, abdominal cramps and vomiting
- Bloody diarrhoea and severe abdominal pain in more severe disease
- Usually self-limiting with recovery in around 10 days
- Haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS): - Approximately 10% of STEC O157 cases develop HUS
- Characterised by acute renal failure, thrombocytopenia and microangiopathic haemolytic anaemia
- Children aged less than 5 years are at greatest risk of developing HUS, usually 1 week after onset of bloody diarrhoea
- Around 50% may develop chronic renal complications. Mortality is between 3-5%
Non-O157 infections show a similar spectrum of illness but several strains have been associated with more severe disease (bloody diarrhoea and HUS) including O26, O45 and others
Related pages
Create an account to add page annotations
Annotations allow you to add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation. E.g. a website or number. This information will always show when you visit this page.