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Community-wide outbreak of haemolytic uraemic syndrome associated with Shiga toxin 2-producing Escherichia coli O26:H11 in southern Italy, summer 2013
- Cinzia Germinario1 , Alfredo Caprioli2 , Mario Giordano3 , Maria Chironna1 , Maria Serena Gallone1 , Silvio Tafuri1 , Fabio Minelli2 , Antonella Maugliani2 , Valeria Michelacci2 , Luisa Santangelo3 , Onofrio Mongelli4 , Cosimo Montagna5 , Gaia Scavia2 , on behalf of all participants of the Outbreak investigation team6
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View Affiliations Hide AffiliationsAffiliations: 1 Department of Biomedical Science and Human Oncology, Aldo Moro University of Bari, Bari, Italy 2 Department of Veterinary Public Health and Food Safety, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy 3 Paediatric Nephrology and Dialysis Unit, Children's Hospital Giovanni XXIII, Bari, Italy 4 Veterinary Public Health Office, Regione Puglia, Bari, Italy 5 Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Puglia e Basilicata, Putignano, Italy 6 The members of the Outbreak investigation team are listed at the end of the articleGaia Sofia Scaviagaia.scavia iss.it
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Citation style for this article: Germinario Cinzia, Caprioli Alfredo, Giordano Mario, Chironna Maria, Gallone Maria Serena, Tafuri Silvio, Minelli Fabio, Maugliani Antonella, Michelacci Valeria, Santangelo Luisa, Mongelli Onofrio, Montagna Cosimo, Scavia Gaia, on behalf of all participants of the Outbreak investigation team. Community-wide outbreak of haemolytic uraemic syndrome associated with Shiga toxin 2-producing Escherichia coli O26:H11 in southern Italy, summer 2013. Euro Surveill. 2016;21(38):pii=30343. https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2016.21.38.30343 Received: 03 Jul 2015; Accepted: 18 Oct 2015
Abstract
In summer 2013, an excess of paediatric cases of haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS) in a southern region of Italy prompted the investigation of a community-wide outbreak of Shiga toxin 2-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O26:H11 infections. Case finding was based on testing patients with HUS or bloody diarrhoea for STEC infection by microbiological and serological methods. A case–control study was conducted to identify the source of the outbreak. STEC O26 infection was identified in 20 children (median age 17 months) with HUS, two of whom reported severe neurological sequelae. No cases in adults were detected. Molecular typing showed that two distinct STEC O26:H11 strains were involved. The case–control study showed an association between STEC O26 infection and consumption of dairy products from two local plants, but not with specific ready-to-eat products. E.coli O26:H11 strains lacking the stx genes were isolated from bulk milk and curd samples, but their PFGE profiles did not match those of the outbreak isolates. This outbreak supports the view that infections with Stx2-producing E. coli O26 in children have a high probability of progressing to HUS and represent an emerging public health problem in Europe.

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