At the request of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Health and Consumers, a rapid risk assessment has been prepared concerning the outbreak of E Coli in Germany.

This joint report, produced by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), aims to give a short summary of reported Shiga toxin/verotoxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC/VTEC) prevalence and incidence in humans, food and animals.

​Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) is a group of pathogenic Escherichia coli strains capable of producing Shiga toxins, with the potential to cause severe enteric and systemic disease in humans.

An update of the initial rapid risk assessment on the outbreak of E. Coli in Germany, prepared at the request of the European Commission, first published on 27 May 2011.

This document is an update of the EFSA/ECDC joint rapid risk assessment of 29 June and aims to add new information to this and earlier initial rapid risk assessments (27 May and 14 June 2011).

On 24 March 2017, the German authorities reported the contamination of a ‘do-it-yourself’ bacterial gene engineering CRISPR kit produced in the US. This publication assesses the risk related to the use of ‘do-it-yourself’ CRISPR-associated gene engineering kit contaminated with pathogenic bacteria. test

This issue of the ECDC Communicable Disease Threats Report (CDTR) covers the period 13-19 May 2018 and includes updates on E.coli, seasonal influenza, dengue, hepatitis A, measles, rubella, yellow fever and Ebola.

This toolkit aims to support infection prevention in schools, with a focus on gastrointestinal diseases, by assisting EU/EEA countries in their communication initiatives for disease prevention in school settings.