Shortly after she was admitted to the ICU, one of the doctors at the Phoenix Children\u2019s Hospital Arrowhead Campus in Glendale asked Thompson if she and her daughter had attended the Arizona State Fair. When Thompson confirmed they had, the doctor told her she would receive a call from Maricopa County health officials.\u00a0<\/p>\n
James was not the first case they had seen, Thompson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the ICU doctors actually told me a bunch of kiddos contracted the same exact strand as her,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cAnd they all went to the fair.\u201d<\/p>\n
In late October, multiple teenagers and children began appearing at emergency rooms around the state with severe symptoms that included bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramps and vomiting. Doctors determined the children had been getting sick from a toxin called Shiga.<\/p>\n
The Shiga toxin originates from certain strains of E. coli affected by the Shigella dysenteriae bacteriophage, a virus that infects and alters the genome of bacteria to replicate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When an affected strain, known as a Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli, also known as STEC, dies off, the Shiga toxin is released into the host\u2019s body.<\/p>\n
\n
According to a 2023 study<\/a>, Shiga toxin is responsible for 90% to 95% of hemolytic uremic syndrome cases, as seen in James.. Hemolytic uremic syndrome damages blood vessels in the kidneys, destroying red blood cells and threatening the kidneys and other organs, according to the Mayo Clinic\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n The \u201cMaricopa County Department of Public Health, along with the Arizona Department of Health Services, is investigating a statewide increase in E. coli cases relative to historical trends during the month of October,\u201d according to Courtney Kreuzwiesner, the preparedness communications supervisor at the Public Health office of Maricopa County, in a statement to Cronkite News.<\/p>\n On Nov. 13, the Arizona Department of Health Services alerted health care providers across the state to be wary. Kreuzwiesner said an investigation into E. coli is ongoing.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cADHS issued a Healthcare Advisory related to a two-fold increase of E. coli,\u201d said Juan Pablo Martin, ADHS media director, in a statement to Cronkite News. \u201cThere has also been an increase in hospitalizations involving (HUS).\u201d<\/p>\n Two cases from Oct. 26<\/strong><\/p>\n According to Parker\u2019s Promise, the pair aren\u2019t alone; the nonprofit has received reports of 186 cases as of Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere is an outbreak of STEC from the AZ State Fair and many children are hospitalized – we have heard of at least 186 cases,\u201d according to a Facebook post <\/a>by Parker\u2019s Promise.<\/p>\n The Facebook post features two of 186 cases the organization said originated from the state fair. James first went to the emergency room on Halloween, and she was sent home. She returned to the ER the next day. On Nov. 2, she was transported to Phoenix Children\u2019s Hospital. She had her third blood transfusion on Nov. 14 and a sixth round of dialysis on Nov. 15.<\/p>\n Another Facebook post said the 16-year-old was hospitalized for four days at Phoenix Children’s Hospital in November. She had a much shorter stint in the hospital than James.\u00a0<\/p>\n Health officials are investigating a \u2018historical trend\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n The correlation between the Arizona State Fair and an E. coli outbreak is under investigation; however, as of Wednesday, the Maricopa County Environmental Services Department hasn\u2019t received confirmation that the two instances are linked to each other or the state fair, according to MaFernanda Pacheco, a communications officer for the department.<\/p>\n Although E. coli is found in people’s colons, the Shiga toxin is primarily native to cows, sheep and pigs, and contact with them can lead to harm, according to Dr. Jonathan Blum, an infectious disease doctor in Santa Clara.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe amount of bacteria that are needed to cause an infection in a human with this particular strain is exceptionally small,\u201d Blum said Thursday. \u201cEven a really microscopic amount of bacteria can cause an infection.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Blum advises\u00a0 people who visit petting zoos to properly sanitize by washing their hands and avoid touching their faces or mouths, and be especially careful of small children or those who don\u2019t have the capacity to \u201cmanage hand hygiene.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cContact with animals does not require actually touching the animal. Contact with contaminated surfaces can also spread this infection,\u201d\u00a0 Blum said. \u201cBecause the infectious dose is so small, very small amounts of fecal contamination on surfaces can lead to infection. When you were a kid, your parents probably told you to wash your hands before dinner. They were right.\u201d<\/p>\n The Arizona State Fair advertised the access children have when they attend the petting zoo, according to the fair\u2019s website. \u201cGet up close and personal with furry and fuzzy friends. Snap a selfie with a sheep.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Phoenix Children\u2019s Hospital media relations specialist Grace Culqui said they cannot confirm any cases of STEC at their hospital.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIn the interest of patient privacy, we’re not able to release specific patient census data,\u201d Culqui said in an email. \u201cI believe your questions are better suited for the county health department.\u201d<\/p>\n Keily Henriquez contributed to this story<\/p>\n This article<\/a> first appeared on Cronkite News<\/a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Ryan Myers and Anyon Fak-McDaniels | Cronkite News PHOENIX \u2013 The 17-year-old patient, clad in a light…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":396050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,1589,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-396545","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-az","11":"tag-phoenix","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-united-states-of-america","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115592465755584081","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}