First UK E.coli demise confirmed as almost all these with it have ‘bloody poo’
Officials have confirmed that a person in England has died linked to the ongoing E.coli outbreak, with young women appearing to be most at risk from the disease.
Among confirmed outbreak cases, 81% have reported bloody diarrhoea, the UK Health Security Agency stated.
The E.coli cases were “consistent with a nationally distributed food product as the cause of the outbreak.” A high proportion of cases had reported consuming pre-packaged sandwich products during the seven days prior to becoming unwell, UKHSA.
The hypothesis that sandwiches containing lettuce were the likely main cause of the outbreak was confirmed through multiple different epidemiological studies which showed a statistically significant association between illness and consumption of these products.
Authorities initially identified one supplier of the potentially contaminated lettuce, while investigations are still ongoing at two other lettuce suppliers at the grower stage of the supply chain.
A potential outbreak was first identified in England on May 22 through UKHSA’s routine surveillance, with a rapid ten-fold increase in the number of faecal samples from patients testing positive referred from the NHS to the national reference laboratory.
Concurrent increases for similar surveillance indicators were reported in Wales and Scotland and national incident was declared on May 24.
UKHSA stated that between May 25 and June 24, there were 275 confirmed cases reported. Cases were geographically dispersed in all regions of England (182), in Scotland (58), Wales (31) and Northern Ireland (4), with no notable geographic clustering.
However, evidence suggests that cases in Northern Ireland likely acquired their infection in England. Primary cases were predominantly female (57%) and had a median age of 30.
Of the 122 hospitalised cases, 57% were female and had a median age of 35.
The most affected age groups were 20 to 29 and 30 to 39 with 30% and 23% of cases respectively.
As well as the 81% with bloody diarrhoea, 49% of cases have been admitted to hospital while 10% attended A&E for their symptoms.
Seven hemolytic uremic syndrome cases, five in England and two in Scotland, were also confirmed to be associated with this outbreak. HUS, as it is known, is a rare but serious disease that affects the kidneys and blood clotting functions of infected people.
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