Long term health effects of Escherichia coli O157 infection (v1)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Long-term health effects of E.coli O157 infection: a population-based matched cohort study, Wales (UK)
IRAS ID
243461
Contact name
Christopher Williams
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Public Health Wales
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 9 months, 0 days
Research summary
Escherichia coli O157 causes gastrointestinal disease in humans. It is of particular public health concern as it can also cause severe symptoms such as haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), a leading cause of acute renal failure in children. Chronic sequelae such as reactive arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel syndrome and Guillain Barre syndrome have been associated with a range of gastrointestinal infections. However, although there is a large body of literature on E.coli O157, information on chronic sequelae is lacking, and is primarily limited to studies of HUS (Keithlin et al., 2015). In addition, only a few studies have looked at the long-term renal effects of HUS, identifying proteinuria (15-30% of cases); hypertension (5-15%); chronic kidney disease (CKD; 9-18%); and end-stage kidney disease (ESKD; 3%) (Spinale et al., 2013).
The question we want to answer with this study is whether people previously infected with E.coli O157 are at increased risk of long term health effects. We will explore whether this infection increases the risk of renal conditions, reactive arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel syndrome and Guillain Barre syndrome, and others.
This is important because it will help us understand the long term consequences of the infection, and how much it contributes to ill health beyond the immediate symptoms of infection. In turn, this knowledge helps in the prioritisation of health protection services.
In addition, we will find out how frequent some of these health conditions are in Wales.
All known cases of E.coli O157 since 1990 in Wales residents will be included, and will be compared to Welsh residents without the infection. Only routinely collected, pre-existing data will be used, and no new data will be collected.REC name
N/A
REC reference
N/A