The Rome, GA-based Northwest Georgia Health Department has determined that one of two Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS) cases currently being investigated by the public health agency may have started with an E. coli infection. A health department spokesman says an HUS case out of Catoosa County is not linked to E. coli, but it is possible that a second HUS case being investigated out of Walker County might be E. coli-related. The department is seeking the source of both illnesses. HUS is a potentially deadly kidney-damaging disease that largely impacts children after they are infected with E. coli bacteria. Walker and Catoosa counties make up the northwest corner of Georgia, both being adjacent to Chattanooga, TN. There have been no reports of E. coli cases in Tennessee by either the state health department or its southeastern health district.