Shigellosis at a Caribbean resort. Hamburger and North American origin as risk factors.

During a three-week period in 1984, 339 tourists and expatriate employees with diarrhea visited the infirmary at a Caribbean resort club. Epidemiologic studies suggested that over 60% of the 1,893 tourists at the resort club during that time may have been ill. Shigella flexneri 4a was isolated from seven of 18 stool specimens. A few cases of diarrheal illness occurred at the resort club before the onset of the outbreak, which was temporally related to illness in a butcher. North American residence, eating raw or very rare hamburger, having a roommate who was ill and younger age were significantly associated with acquiring disease. Control measures, principally elimination of ill food handlers from the kitchens, were followed by a prompt and marked reduction in new cases. Isolated resorts pose problems in disease control similar to those on cruise ships, with hundreds of foods available, large numbers of short-stay visitors with few outside exposures, and many food handlers in whom pathogens can persist between groups of visitors. Resort clubs can reduce the risk of traveler's diarrhea, without using mass prophylaxis against pathogenic bacteria, by appropriate handling and preparation of food and by surveillance for diarrheal illnesses.

Hemolytic uremic syndrome and diarrhea associated with Escherichia coli O157:H7 in a day care center.

Three cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome with bloody diarrhea occurred during an outbreak of diarrheal illness in children aged 4 months to 9 years who attended a day care center. Thirty-six (34%) of 107 had diarrhea (three or more loose or watery stools in 24 hours) lasting greater than or equal to 3 days. Thirty-one (48%) of 64 children younger than 4 years of age but only (12%) of 43 in the older classes became ill (relative risk 4.0, P less than 0.001). Eleven (31%) of the 36 children with diarrhea had blood in their stools. Sequential movement of illness from class to class was consistent with person-to-person spread. Ten (18%) of 56 family members of ill children but only one of 45 family members of well children younger than 4 years of age developed a diarrheal illness (P less than 0.05). Escherichia coli O157:H7 was detected in two of eight stool specimens from children who had bloody diarrhea (one with hemolytic uremic syndrome), two of seven with nonbloody diarrhea, and none of nine who remained well. All three stool specimens obtained at less than or equal to 6 days compared with one of nine obtained at greater than 6 days after onset yielded this organism (P less than 0.02). E. coli O157:H7 can cause hemolytic uremic syndrome and both nonbloody and bloody diarrhea, and can spread within families and through modes other than foodborne transmission.