The recall was issued about a week ago when Freshway reported that products with romaine lettuce may be contaminated with E. coli, a type of bacteria that dwell in the intestines.

Some strands destroyed by stomach acid are safe, but other varieties of E. coli found in contaminated food and water can cause infections that lead to severe diarrhea, cramping, bloody stools, and in severe cases organ damage and/or kidney failure.

According to the Mayo Clinic, symptoms of E. coli usually pass within a week for healthy adults, but can last much longer for children and people with weak immune systems. Drinking lots of water can help offset dehydration, but if symptoms persist doctors recommend seeking immediate medical attention.

"We are voluntarily issuing this recall because we want to do everything possible to minimize risk to public health," Freshway Foods president Phil Gilardi said in an FDA press release.

"(We are) committed to our consumers,” he says. “We practice strict food safety guidelines to ensure that our products are as safe as possible, and we will continue to look for opportunities for improvement."

The recall included products sold primarily to restaurants, salad bars, delis, etc. Bulk products and “prepackaged romaine or bagged salad mixes containing romaine for sale in supermarkets”, however, are safe.

Hey, it’s an excuse to grab a slice of pizza, right?

Get more details from the FDA’s press release, or read more at MSNBC.

’Tis the season for giving, and some people are taking it to the extreme. Thirteen people donated their kidneys for what they’re calling a “kidney swap.” Donors had nothing to gain, but because of their generosity 13 lucky recipients have a little extra to be merry about this Christmas.

End-stage renal disease, also known as kidney failure, can’t be treated with medication. When the kidneys cannot function, the body can’t filter out its wastes, and the person will eventually die. The only way for a person to survive this condition is to undergo dialysis or receive a kidney transplant.

This is one of the largest kidney swaps that’s ever occurred, the Associated Press reported. Donations such as this do more than just help the kidney recipients. They cut the wait list and give hope to the entire pool of patients who need kidneys.

Transplants are very complicated procedures, and much of the difficulty lies in finding a compatible donor. In the United States, nearly 105,000 people are waiting for an organ transplant. It is estimated that another 4,000 are added each month.

Patients waiting for an organ must register with the National Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN). This registry helps match patients with the most compatible donors. The shortage of kidneys makes this process extremely difficult, and only a small number of patients are ever lucky enough to receive one.

Finding a compatible donor can take years. Because of the donation, however, the wait was cut significantly. Doctors from Georgetown University Hospital and Washington Hospital Center completed the 26 operations in just six days.

Five of the recipients needed to undergo a procedure known as plasmapheresis, a process of filtering the blood to retain antibodies that will keep the body from rejecting the kidney. All of the donations were life-saving operations.

"People keep wanting to know why, why, why," donor Sylvia Glaser, 69, says. "It sounds very trite but you pass through this world, and what do you ever do that makes a difference? You are giving someone a life, and there is no substitute for that."

Although they were complete strangers prior to the donation, donors and recipients were finally able to meet for the first time this Tuesday.

A large study of the long-term effects of kidney donation finds that kidney donors can expect to live full, healthy lives in most cases. The retrospective analysis reported in today’s New England Journal of Medicine concludes that people who donate one of their two kidneys have a long term survival rate similar to non-donors and do not face increased risk of kidney failure.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota examined data from nearly 3,700 people who had donated a kidney at the university since 1963. They tracked down as many surviving donors as they could and used government records in an attempt to determine who had died. They randomly selected 255 donors to undergo tests of kidney function.

The results showed that the survival of kidney donors was similar to that of the general population when matched for age, sex, and race or ethnic group. Kidney failure requiring dialysis or transplant developed in 11 donors, which translates to a rate of 180 cases per million people per year. This is actually lower than the rate in the general population of 268 per million per year. The researchers noted that most donors who were studied enjoyed an excellent quality of life.

One of the main reasons for the good outcome for donors may have been the strict criteria in place for kidney donation. Donors had to be in good health and free of high blood pressure and diabetes, two of the main contributing factors for kidney disease. There are no official regulations regarding living kidney donation but most transplant centers adhere to similar criteria.

A scientist not involved in the study notes the donors were mostly young and mainly white. It remains to be seen whether the safety of living kidney donation holds for older, non-white donors. The University of Minnesota is part of an ongoing study that will examine a larger and more diverse donor group.

Most people are born with two kidneys, which function to eliminate waste from the body in form of urine. If someone’s kidneys fail the only options for survival are dialysis or a transplant. More than 78,000 people are currently on the national waiting list to receive a kidney from a deceased donor. Due in part to new surgical techniques that have shortened recovery times, living kidney donation has become more common in recent years. Lving donors must be tissue matched to recipients in order to be able to donate a kidney.

To find out more about living kidney donation, visit the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network Web site or the National Kidney Foundation Web site.

If you want to learn more about kidney failure, join the Healia Health Community and Support Group for Kidney Failure. For information about type 2 diabetes, see the Healia Health Community for Diabetes Type 2 or read the Healia Health Guide on Diabetes Type 2.

_{Photo: shanelkalicharan, Flickr, Creative Commons}