TY - JOUR
T1 - Haemolytic uraemic syndrome in children England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Ireland
T2 - A prospective cohort study
AU - Byrne, Lisa
AU - Douglas, Amy
AU - Launders, Naomi
AU - Godbole, Gauri
AU - Lynn, Richard
AU - Inward, Carol
AU - Jenkins, Claire
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), 2023.
PY - 2023/9/1
Y1 - 2023/9/1
N2 - Haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS) caused by infection with Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) is a relatively rare but potentially fatal multisystem syndrome clinically characterised by acute kidney injury. This study aimed to provide robust estimates of paediatric HUS incidence in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland by using data linkage and case reconciliation with existing surveillance systems, and to describe the characteristics of the condition. Between 2011 and 2014, 288 HUS patients were included in the study, of which 256 (89.5%) were diagnosed as typical HUS. The crude incidence of paediatric typical HUS was 0.78 per 100,000 person-years, although this varied by country, age, gender, and ethnicity. The majority of typical HUS cases were 1 to 4 years old (53.7%) and female (54.0%). Clinical symptoms included diarrhoea (96.5%) and/or bloody diarrhoea (71.9%), abdominal pain (68.4%), and fever (41.4%). Where STEC was isolated (59.3%), 92.8% of strains were STEC O157 and 7.2% were STEC O26. Comparison of the HUS case ascertainment to existing STEC surveillance data indicated an additional 166 HUS cases were captured during this study, highlighting the limitations of the current surveillance system for STEC for monitoring the clinical burden of STEC and capturing HUS cases.
AB - Haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS) caused by infection with Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) is a relatively rare but potentially fatal multisystem syndrome clinically characterised by acute kidney injury. This study aimed to provide robust estimates of paediatric HUS incidence in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland by using data linkage and case reconciliation with existing surveillance systems, and to describe the characteristics of the condition. Between 2011 and 2014, 288 HUS patients were included in the study, of which 256 (89.5%) were diagnosed as typical HUS. The crude incidence of paediatric typical HUS was 0.78 per 100,000 person-years, although this varied by country, age, gender, and ethnicity. The majority of typical HUS cases were 1 to 4 years old (53.7%) and female (54.0%). Clinical symptoms included diarrhoea (96.5%) and/or bloody diarrhoea (71.9%), abdominal pain (68.4%), and fever (41.4%). Where STEC was isolated (59.3%), 92.8% of strains were STEC O157 and 7.2% were STEC O26. Comparison of the HUS case ascertainment to existing STEC surveillance data indicated an additional 166 HUS cases were captured during this study, highlighting the limitations of the current surveillance system for STEC for monitoring the clinical burden of STEC and capturing HUS cases.
KW - E. coli
KW - Shiga-like toxin-producing
KW - epidemiology
KW - medical microbiology
KW - paediatrics
KW - surveillance
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85172809023&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S0950268823001413
DO - 10.1017/S0950268823001413
M3 - Article
C2 - 37655611
AN - SCOPUS:85172809023
SN - 0950-2688
VL - 151
JO - Epidemiology and Infection
JF - Epidemiology and Infection
M1 - e160
ER -