UK – Scotland – E. coli O157 outbreak 2016 – unpasteurised cheese

On 29 March, Health Protection Scotland (HPS) published the Escherichia coli O157 outbreak report on behalf of the Incident Management Team (IMT) which was established to investigate the national outbreak in summer 2016.

The report confirms that a total of 26 cases of the same strain of E. coli O157 were identified in the outbreak between July and mid-September 2016. Seventeen of the cases required admission to hospital and a three year old child died.

This report (available at http://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/pubs/detail.aspx?id=3200) was produced on behalf of the multi-agency Incident Management Team and has been approved by all team members. The report describes the detailed epidemiological, microbiological, food and environmental investigations and concludes that Dunsyre Blue cheese was the source of this outbreak. It also presents lessons learned and recommendations for improvement. [Source: HPS News Release, 29 March 2017. http://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/news/newsdetail.aspx?id=22100]

Food Standards Scotland has commented on the report at http://www.foodstandards.gov.scot/news/food-standards-scotland-statement-re….

• http://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/documents/ewr/pdf2017/1713.pdf
• http://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/pubs/detail.aspx?id=3200