TY - JOUR AU - Rivas, Marta AU - Sosa-Estani, Sergio AU - Rangel, Josefa AU - Caletti, Maria G. AU - Vallés, Patricia AU - Roldán, Carlos D. AU - Balbi, Laura AU - Marsano de Mollar, Maria C. AU - Amoedo, Diego AU - Miliwebsky, Elizabeth AU - Chinen, Isabel AU - Hoekstra, Robert M. AU - Mead, Paul AU - Griffin, Patricia M. T1 - Risk Factors for Sporadic Shiga Toxin–producing Escherichia coli Infections in Children, Argentina T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2008 VL - 14 IS - 5 SP - 763 SN - 1080-6059 AB - We evaluated risk factors for sporadic Shiga toxin–producing Escherichia coli (STEC) infection among children in Argentina. We conducted a prospective case–control study in 2 sites and enrolled 150 case-patients and 299 controls. The median age of case-patients was 1.8 years; 58% were girls. Serotype O157:H7 was the most commonly isolated STEC. Exposures associated with infection included eating undercooked beef, living in or visiting a place with farm animals, and contact with a child <5 years of age with diarrhea. Protective factors included the respondent reporting that he or she always washed hands after handling raw beef and the child eating more than the median number of fruits and vegetables. Many STEC infections in children could be prevented by avoiding consumption of undercooked beef, limiting exposure to farm animals and their environment, not being exposed to children with diarrhea, and washing hands after handling raw beef. KW - Shiga toxin–producing Escherichia coli KW - E. coli O157 KW - hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) KW - case-control study KW - risk factors KW - human KW - transmission KW - epidemiology KW - Argentina KW - research DO - 10.3201/eid1405.071050 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/14/5/07-1050_article ER - End of Reference