I spent the morning on the phone with two young fathers whose children are both victims of Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome caused by E. coli O157:H7 that has been linked by the CDC to Nestle Toll House Cookie Dough. One child, an 8-year-old from Michigan has been hospitalized for nearly a week and has received at least one blood transfusion. The other child is a 4-year-old from South Carolina. She was recently released from an Atlanta Rehab center after three and a half weeks. This is on top of nearly two months in the hospital, weeks on dialysis and suffering from a stroke.
I also followed up with a Nevada woman, who too has been linked to the outbreak, and who is still hospitalized after over two months in the hospital. She has suffered the removal of a portion of her large intestine and was on dialysis until the last few days. A week ago she was just learning how to walk again. E. coli O157:H7 is a very, very nasty bug.
The new CDC numbers also came out today:
* 74 cases from 32 states – all match by PFGE testing
* Onset ranges from March 16 to June 11
* 72% female, age range 2-65 years (median age 15)
* 34 Hospitalizations
* 10 with Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS)