Escherichia coli O157:H7 in beef cattle presented for slaughter in the U.S.: Higher prevalence rates than previously estimated

Authors

Lisa J. Gansheroff, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
Alison D. O'Brien, Uniformed Services University of the Health SciencesFollow

Date of this Version

2000

Citation

PNAS (2000), 97(7), p. 2959-2961.

Abstract

Before 1982, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had identified only one Escherichia coli isolate of the O157:H7 serotype; it had been isolated from a patient with bloody diarrhea. Then, in 1982, two outbreaks of severe bloody diarrhea occurred among people who had eaten hamburgers at a fast food chain. The CDC isolated E. coli O157:H7 from people who had become ill as well as from a hamburger patty. In 1983, Karmali et al. discovered an association between infection with E. coli that produce Shiga toxin (then called Vero toxin), including O157:H7 strains, and another severe and sometimes fatal condition, the hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). Last year, the CDC estimated that strains of E. coli O157:H7 cause approximately 73,000 illnesses and 60 deaths per year in the United States, and non- O157:H7 Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) add an additional 37,000 estimated cases.