STEC infection cases - Annual Epidemiological Report for 2023

Surveillance and monitoring

5 Jun 2025

Publication series: Annual Epidemiological Report

Time period covered: This report is based on data for 2023 retrieved from The European Surveillance System (TESSy) on 4 September 2024.

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For 2023, 30 European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) countries reported 10 901 confirmed cases of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) infection.

Key facts

The overall EU/EEA notification rate was 3.2 cases per 100 000 population, the highest annual notification rate since the start of the EU/EEA-wide surveillance.
In 2023, the rate was highest in children under five years of age with 13.7 cases per 100 000population for males and 13.1 cases per 100 000 population for females.
The confirmed haemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS) cases were comparable to 2022, when cases increased after a stable trend during the pandemic years in the EU/EEA. Among the 522 HUS cases reported, the majority were in the youngest age groups, from 0–4 years (60%) to 5–14 years (19%).
However, the highest proportion of the deceased cases with HUS were over 60 years old.