An outbreak of enterohemorrhagic   Escherichia coli  O157:H7 infection associated with minced meat cutlets in Kanagawa, Japan.

An outbreak of enterohemorrhagic  Escherichia coli  O157:H7 infection associated with minced meat cutlets in Kanagawa, Japan. Jpn J Infect Dis. 2018 Jul 31;: Authors: Furukawa I, Suzuki M, Masaoka T, Nakajima N, Mitani E, Tasaka M, Teranishi H, Matsumoto Y, Koizumi M, Ogawa A, Oota Y, Homma S, Sasaki K, Satoh H, Sato K, Muto S, Anan Y, Kuroki T Abstract An outbreak of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) O157:H7 infection occurred in October 2016 in Kanagawa, Japan. A total of 61 patients and 17 asymptomatic cases were confirmed to be infected with EHEC O157:H7 by laboratory testing. Among these cases, 24 patients were hospitalized and four patients developed hemolytic-uremic syndrome. An epidemiological investigation found that this outbreak of EHEC O157:H7 infection was associated with the consumption of uncooked minced meat cutlets that were sold frozen at branches of a supermarket chain. The implicated uncooked meat cutlets were made of a mixture of minced beef, pork, onions and eggs. All 40 meat cutlets tested from one particular lot were positive for EHEC O157:H7. The patterns observed on pulsed-field gel electrophoresis of strains isolated from cases and meat cutlets were identical. The bacterial counts of EHEC O157:H7 and E. coli in meat cutlets ranged from 2.3 to 110 MPN/g and from 240 to 4600 MPN/g, respectively. There are currently no national regulatory standards to ensure the safety of these types of meat products...
Source: Japanese Journal of Infectious Diseases - Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Tags: Jpn J Infect Dis Source Type: research