Source of participants
STEC, HUS
INFECTIOUS DISEASE, BLOODY DIARRHEA
Research teams will seek to be notified and obtain consent to approach all eligible high-risk, STEC-infected children within their catchment area. Study sites are all leading academic tertiary care centers and leads will disseminate their allocated pathway and a desire to serve as a clinical care site for all STEC-infected children. They will connect with satellite institutions and laboratories to be informed of all potentially eligible children. At their local institutions, through mechanisms put in place with their laboratory and all relevant clinical care teams (e.g., ED, infectious disease, nephrology, gastroenterology, pediatrics), the research team will be notified of potentially eligible children. Study teams will take advantage of their electronic medical records to set up reports that inform them of all positive stool tests and relevant diagnoses (i.e., bloody diarrhea, STEC, HUS). The cluster design promotes the initiation of the allocated treatment at any time and does not require research team involvement of participant research consent. The latter can be obtained following treatment implementation. In addition, consent can be obtained for data collection electronically, and as such, children meeting all eligibility can be enrolled without having to come to the study institution (i.e., they can be treated in accordance with the allocated pathway either at a satellite institution or by a care provider who is willing and able to adhere to the pathway).