Listeria risk awareness should be increased - ECDC
Despite the relatively low number of cases caused by Listeria the average case fatality rate was 16%, for all other diseases looked at, the rate was below 1%.
Findings come as part of a report looking at food and waterborne diseases in the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) between 2010 and 2012.
The surveillance report looked at campylobacteriosis, listeriosis, non-typhoidal salmonellosis, shigellosis, Shiga toxin/verocytotoxin producing E.coli (STEC/VTEC) infections, typhoid and paratyphoid fever and yersiniosis.
Listeria concerns
Of special concern are Listeria infections among the elderly. Hospital-related outbreaks remain a significant concern and underscore the high infection risk related to processed, ready-to-eat (RTE) foods in settings where vulnerable population groups are served.
An increasing trend in domestically acquired listeriosis cases was reported between 2008 and 2012.
The EU microbiological criterion for L. monocytogenes in ready-to-eat (RTE) food items is ≤100 cfu/g for RTE products on the market during their shelf-life
In the two years, 4,851 cases were reported, representing an average rate of 0.35 per 100,000 population and 517 deaths were reported.
The highest number of listeriosis cases was from Germany, accounting for 23% of all reported cases, followed by France with 19% and the UK with 11%.
Reported human listeriosis cases were most frequently associated with serotypes 1/2a and 4b and there was increase in notification rates in age group older than 65 years.
Campylobacter and Salmonella
Campylobacteriosis continued to be the most commonly reported zoonosis, with 662,521 confirmed cases and an average notification rate of 67 per 100,000 population in 2010–2012.
Confirmed cases in the EU/EEA followed an increasing trend in the last five years (2008–2012), with a clear seasonality and peaking of cases in June–August.
The majority (about 90%) of Campylobacter infections were acquired in EU/EEA countries. C. jejuni remained stable, while C. coli increased significantly in 2008–2012.
Reporting of non-typhoidal salmonellosis cases continued decreasing and dropped by 10,013 cases between 2010 and 2012, representing a reduction of 10%.
A total of 291,806 confirmed cases were reported in 2010–2012 (average notification rate: 21.5 cases per 100,000 population).
The decrease was particularly noticeable in domestic cases due to the two most common serotypes; Salmonella Enteritidis and S. Typhimurium.
Shigella and E.coli
A stable trend in confirmed shigellosis cases was observed with the average notification rate of 1.8 per 100,000 population, with 21,969 reported cases in 2010–2012.
Two thirds of the reported cases were travel-related from countries outside the EU/EEA.
Shigella sonnei was the most commonly reported species (56% of total species reported) in 2010–2012, followed by S. flexneri (33% of total species reported). The trend in S. flexneri cases significantly increased during 2008–2012.
STEC/VTEC infections showed a significantly increasing trend over the surveillance period.
Even without counting the cases reported in the STEC/VTEC O104:H4 outbreak in Germany in 2011, the trend was significantly increasing in 2008–2010.
In 2010–2012, 18,995 confirmed STEC/VTEC cases (1.7 cases per 100,000 population) were reported.
The number of cases reported in 2012 increased by 55% (2,037 cases) compared with 2010. An increasing number of reports of confirmed STEC/VTEC cases is possibly an effect of increased awareness and improved capacity in the EU/EEA countries following the outbreak.
Of those isolates in which the serogroup was known, most were serogroup O157 (55%).
The five most common STEC/VTEC serotypes were: O157:H7 (26%), O157:H- (10%), O104:H4 (6.1%), O26:H11 (5.8%) and O103:H2 (5.7%). Almost 90% of infections were of domestic origin.
