E. Coli Outbreak Reaches 21 States

There's just no stopping it! Here's what Bloomberg has to say:

"Illnesses in five more people in were blamed today on a deadly outbreak of E. coli attributed to fresh spinach, raising the number of cases to 114, U.S. food regulators and health officials said.

Eighteen people have developed a type of kidney failure known as hemolytic-uremic syndrome, according to the National Center for Infectious Diseases in Atlanta. Seventy-five percent of the people infected were women.

"All the indications are that the implicated brands were grown in the state of California,'' Acheson said. "It's important to emphasize that we're not ruling out the possibility that other spinach from other states may be implicated.''

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Poor Governor Ahhrnahld, now he has to explain why his state's produce industry is responsible for the second worst E. Coli outbreak in US history (The first being the Jack-In-The-Box Fiasco).

For those of those interested, hemolytic-uremic syndrome is caused by a toxin that E. coli produces which damages endothelial cells, when these get killed off the kidneys can't function properly, leading to acute renal failure, in which the body accumulates the waste products the kidneys are supposed to take care of.

If left untreated, the patient goes into what is known as End-stage Renal Disease (ESRD), in which the body will die from the build up of wastes and fluids.



Bonus - can any of you doctor types tell me if the death is due to sepsis or toxin poisoning, or both, or something else? The internet is not being very helpful on this point. Thanks!