Emergence of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157:H7 in paediatric patients in Shenzhen, China

Around 61% of the emerging infectious diseases are of zoonotic origin and spill over from animal reservoirs to humans.1 The Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157:H7 (STEC) was first detected in 1982 and was associated with foodborne outbreaks, resulting in haemorrhagic colitis that led to fatal haemolytic uraemic syndrome.2 In The Lancet Microbe, Timothy J Dallman and colleagues3 emphasised that the IIc lineage has emerged as the most prevalent lineage of STEC O157:H7 in England, UK. Furthermore, Hermos and colleagues show that both E coli O157 and E coli non-O157 can cause infections of the same severity in paediatric patients with bloody diarrhoea (aged ≤18 years).4