The case of the girl in intensive care for unpasteurized milk
The chronicles of the summer 2023 are characterized, among other things, also by the news of food infections affecting young children. In recent days a child in Puglia had been hospitalized in intensive care (fortunately without kidney problems) while a a thirty-year-old girl of almost 4 years has been in the hospital of Padua for more than 2 months in serious condition from eating a raw milk product. This was reported by the Gambero Rosso website, according to which “in the latter case the ascertained cause of the infection was the ingestion of unpasteurized milk, a food with a high risk of bacterial proliferation in which the protagonist is often theEscherichia Colia bacterium that is sometimes harmless, but which can heavily affect children and weak subjects such as the elderly and immunosuppressed people”.
Seu, cases in Italy and symptoms
“In its typical form, which accounts for approximately 85% of total cases, HUS represents the most serious complication of a bacterial intestinal infection, supported by Escherichia Coli strains that produce a powerful toxin called Shiga-toxin – explains Gambero Rosso – In this regard, the finger should be pointed at foods such as undercooked meat, dairy products that have not undergone pasteurization or other heat treatments, contaminated water, but also fruit and vegetables that have not been properly washed. Among the most common first symptoms are diarrhea, vomiting, intense abdominal pain, drowsiness and muscle weakness, but it can also lead to drowsiness, confusion, numbness, up to convulsions and coma.
Again according to Gambero Rosso, “in Italy, between 1 July 2022 and 30 June 2023, 73 cases of haemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) were recorded 95.9% of which (70 cases) refer to the pediatric population, i.e. those under the age of 15. HUS has an incidence characterized by a summer seasonal peak”.
In the first half of 2023, the number of cases reported to the Italian SEU Registry was instead lower than the average (from 24.7 cases, recorded in the same period of the previous 10 years, to 18.0 cases). In the summer two-month period of 2022 (July-August) the cases (34.0) were higher than the seasonal expectation (22.6 cases).
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