A large German epidemic. Coli also includes a woman from the United States who had gone to the country.
A total of 255 cases are linked to the epidemic. A person over 90 years old with Hu died, but it was a probable case without a laboratory confirmation. The median age of patients is 4 years old.
There are 137 confirmed infections. Among these, 38 have progressed to hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). Hus is a clinical syndrome linked to E. coli, which can cause kidney failure, brain damage and death.
There are also six probable cases and 112 possible cases. It is not yet clear if it is part of the epidemic as the laboratory results are pending. Six of these people have developed Hus.
The start dates of the disease for confirmed cases are between August 11 and September 19, 2025. The median age of these patients is 4, with a range of less than 1 to 94 years. Among the confirmed cases with the information available, 51% are women.
Robert Koch Institute (RKI) has also received information on three cases of epidemic via EU networks. They involve an infected American woman who had gone to Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and a child from Luxembourg and the Netherlands who had not been to Germany.
The current epidemic is the most important since the E incident. Coli O104: H4 2011 When the counting of the final cases was 4,075, including 908 HUS cases and 50 deaths in 16 countries.
Research during source
The National Reference Center (NRZ) for Salmonella and other Bacterial RKI pathogens identified the epidemic strain like E. coli O45: H2. This type of e. Coli is rare in Germany. From January 2015 to June 2025, the NRZ detected only 13 strains of this serovar. These isolates are not genetically closely linked to the epidemic strain.
The Mekcklenburg-Vorpommern State Office for Health and Social Affairs (Lagus) has provided regular updates to the number of sick people. There are 126 patients and 19 Hu cases, 65 and 15 of which are confirmed. A dozen adults and 53 children are confirmed cases.
During the first two weeks, affected people had been almost exclusively in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in the days preceding the start of the disease, either on vacation or as residents. The last cases of epidemic are mainly people from Nordrhein-Westfalen. The Düsseldorf area seems to be the most affected.
The RKI examines patients and their parents by phone, conducting a case-control study and analyzing the purchase receipts to try to find the source of infection. No food has been identified so far.
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