Sweden reports first domestic EHEC case

[tetano]

For the first time, a Swede with no connections to Germany has been infected with the virulent enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) bacteria that has claimed dozens of lives across Europe, Swedish health authorities reported on Tuesday.

?This means that the source of the infection is in Sweden, which is a lot worse, because it might mean that there is some form of infected food product in circulation that we haven?t yet identified, ? said Sofie Ivarsson, epidemiologist at the institute to news agency TT.

The infected Swede comes from Sk?ne, in southern Sweden, and has not been traveling in Germany. Neither does he have any other known connections to anyone else who have been taken ill after visiting Germany.

?All previous Swedish cases had a connection to Germany, but not this. This is a completely new case, which we identified this morning. We have not left any stones unturned and yet we have not been able to find any connection,? Ivarsson told TT.

The patient fell ill in the middle of June but is now reported to be feeling better, according to the institute.

There is an ongoing investigation to find the source of the infection, but it is not yet known if it originated in Sweden or if a connection to the German outbreak will be revealed.

According to the head of the institute, Johan Carlson, there are now only two alternatives. Either the Swedish man has been infected indirectly, or the source of the infection is in Sweden.

"And then we have more of a problem," he told TT.


http://www.thelocal.se/34618/20110628/

 

[tetano]

Re: Sweden reports first domestic EHEC case

No sprouts in Sweden

After yesterday's discovery of the severe EHEC type in Sweden, the big food giants Ica, Coop and Axfoord taken the decision to withdraw sprouts and completely stop selling.
The Swedish National Food Administration has issued an invitation to the public to stop eating raw sprouts. This is independent of whether they are grown at home or purchased in a store.

Formica's press manager Staffan Ekengren told Swedish Radio that the decision to withdraw the sprouts were immediately after Livmedelsverket dissuasion.

Finnish counterpart Evira has not yet come to a similar invitation to the public in Finland.


http://svenska.yle.fi/nyheter/artikel.php?id=219672

 

[tetano]

Re: Sweden reports first domestic EHEC case

Swedish domestic EHEC search abandoned





The centre for communicable diseases (Smittskyddet) in Skåne, in southern Sweden, is now giving up attempts to find the source behind the first Swedish infection of the virulent enterohaemorrhagic E.coli (EHEC) bacteria.


Last Tuesday, a Swedish man with no apparent connections to Germany was infected with the bacteria, marking the first domestic case in Sweden.

"All previous Swedish cases had a connection to Germany, but not this," said Sofie Ivarsson, epidemiologist at the Swedish Institute for Communicable Disease Control (Smittskyddsinstitutet) to news agency TT at the time.

"This means that the source of the infection is in Sweden, which is a lot worse, because it might mean that there is some form of infected food product in circulation that we haven’t yet identified."

After investigating possible sources to the man's infection, Eva Gustafsson, deputy epidemiologist in Skåne, tells TT that the efforts have been fruitless.

"We've followed all information to the end of the line, and right now we've run out of leads."

She doesn't believe there's any infected food to be worried about either.

"If that were the case, more people would have become sick," she said.

The man was the first, and thus far the only, person to have been infected with the EHEC version that has cost 47 lives in Europe so far.

http://www.thelocal.se/34694/20110702/