A verocytotoxin-producing E. coli outbreak with a surprisingly high risk of haemolytic uraemic syndrome, Denmark, September-October 2012

B Soborg; S G Lassen; L Muller; T Jensen; S Ethelberg; K Mølbak; F Scheutz

doi:10.2807/ese.18.02.20350-en

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A verocytotoxin-producing E. coli outbreak with a surprisingly high risk of haemolytic uraemic syndrome, Denmark, September-October 2012
B Soborg ^1,2 , S G Lassen¹ , L Muller¹ , T Jensen³ , S Ethelberg^1,4 , K Mølbak¹ , F Scheutz⁴
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Affiliations: ¹ Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark ² European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training (EPIET), European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, (ECDC), Stockholm, Sweden ³ The Danish Veterinary and Food Administration, Copenhagen, Denmark ⁴ Department of Microbiology and Infection Control, Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark

Correspondence:
B Soborg
bot ssi.dk

Correspondence: B Soborg
bot ssi.dk
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Citation style for this article: Soborg B, Lassen S G, Muller L, Jensen T, Ethelberg S, Mølbak K, Scheutz F. A verocytotoxin-producing E. coli outbreak with a surprisingly high risk of haemolytic uraemic syndrome, Denmark, September-October 2012 . Euro Surveill. 2013;18(2):pii=20350. https://doi.org/10.2807/ese.18.02.20350-en Received: 17 Dec 2012

Abstract

Denmark faced an outbreak of verocytotoxin-producing E. coli (VTEC) O157:H7 infections in autumn 2012. Thirteen cases were diagnosed of which eight had haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS). Epidemiological investigations suggested ground beef as the vehicle of the outbreak. The outbreak strain had a rare toxin gene subtype profile: eae, vtx1a and vtx2a, and a high proportion of HUS (62%) among cases, a finding previously linked with the outbreak subtype profile. Toxin subtyping can be useful to identify high risk VTEC strains.