food poisoning can come back to haunt you

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080121/ap_on_he_me/healthbeat_food_poisoning;_ylt=ArnX7i9qLWyCJRTVBMtVomas0NUE


Food poisoning can be long-term problem


It's a dirty little secret of food poisoning: E. coli and certain other foodborne illnesses can sometimes trigger serious health problems months or years after patients survived that initial bout.

Scientists only now are unraveling a legacy that has largely gone unnoticed.

What they've spotted so far is troubling. In interviews with The Associated Press, they described high blood pressure, kidney damage, even full kidney failure striking 10 to 20 years later in people who survived severe E. coli infection as children, arthritis after a bout of salmonella or shigella, and a mysterious paralysis that can attack people who just had mild symptoms of campylobacter.

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"We're drastically underestimating the burden on society that foodborne illnesses represent," contends Donna Rosenbaum of the consumer advocacy group STOP, Safe Tables Our Priority.

Every week, her group hears from patients with health complaints that they suspect or have been told are related to food poisoning years earlier, like a woman who survived severe E. coli at 8 only to have her colon removed in her 20s. Or people who develop diabetes after food poisoning inflamed the pancreas. Or parents who wonder if a child's learning problems stem from food poisoning-caused dialysis as a toddler.

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For now, some of the best evidence comes from the University of Utah, which has long tracked children with E. coli. About 10 percent of E. coli sufferers develop a life-threatening complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS, where their kidneys and other organs fail.

Ten to 20 years after they recover, between 30 percent and half of HUS survivors will have some kidney-caused problem, says Dr. Andrew Pavia, the university's pediatric infectious diseases chief. That includes high blood pressure caused by scarred kidneys, slowly failing kidneys, even end-stage kidney failure that requires dialysis.
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sorry to bring such bad news

but being forwarned can make you a step ahead.

I bet my neighbors thought by the sounds I was making that I was getting my ass kicked.

It has been more than a month later and I'm still messed up.

My dr. put me on white toast, jello, and broth for a week to see if I can get my system back in line. (She's smokin more than crack if she thinks a sistah can survive on jello, broth, and fuckin white toast for more than a couple of days.)

it worked for me last May when I had food poisoning issues. (I'm not a doctor, but this is what worked for me; check with your doc to see if it's okay for you)

dg

I'm still nauseous and well I don't think we can post about the other. Hey...Maybe I should try the activia like cheese stuff to help with binding.

Thanks for the tip though.

along with cramping & nausea. activia started working almost as soon as it hit my stomach & things cleared up in a few days. :) Hope you feel better soon!

dg

we're talking Roto Rooter for your innards:

www.drnatura.com

last year and she has suffered some horrible problems since the original diagnosis. She is college age and has been plagued with IBS and kidney infections since recovering from e.coli.

As a side note, she lost a lawsuit against Dole because she and her family couldn't afford the high attorney prices to fight Dole's corporate machine. Her medical bills are outrageous.

Dole didn't compensate the people who were harmed by their products?

I would think that a good personal injury lawyer would take this case in a heartbeat!
They won't charge, but will take a percentage of the settlement (30 percent).

She needs to get better legal advice!

Dole claimed that the college clinic didn't provide them with enough substantial tests--the sort a hospital would do--so once she underwent hospital tests, Dole said it was too late after the initial poisoning to be valid.
Her family had an attorney, but even he could only take the case so far because of Dole's refusal to accept the college clinic results. Other students in her dorm were infected as well and Dole paid one of them (the one who is now on dialysis) but claimed that my hairdresser's daughter's e.coli could have just been a "coincidence" and not caused by the spinach in the cafeteria.
There have been more complications to her case, but this is what I remember from talking to her mother, who, of course, is extremely angry.