How long does it take for symptoms to show up after E. coli O157:H7 infection?
On average, symptoms from E. coli O157:H7 infection develop within 3 to 4 days of eating contaminated food, with a range of 1 to 10 days. Symptoms usually include severe bloody diarrhea and abdominal cramps; sometimes the infection causes non-bloody diarrhea or no symptoms. Usually little or no fever is present, and the illness resolves in 5 to 10 days. In some people, the infection can also cause a complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), in which the red blood cells are destroyed and the kidneys fail.
