This joint report, produced by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), aims to give a short summary of reported Shiga toxin/verotoxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC/VTEC) prevalence and incidence in humans, food and animals. A special reference is given to the strain STEC O104:H4, which has been isolated as the causative agent for the large outbreak of haemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) reported in Germany in 2011.
The publication focuses on cases reported in EU/EEA countries through the existing surveillance and monitoring systems of ECDC and EFSA and the comparison of characteristics of strains from earlier reported isolates/cases with the German outbreak strain.