Fact sheets
Shiga/Vero Toxin Producing E.coli (STEC/VTEC) fact sheet (PDF 204KB)
Public Health action
Notifiable disease data and reports
Additional sources of information
Exclusion
Exclusions for HUS apply to cases caused by STEC/VTEC only.
In general, people with symptoms of enteric infections should be excluded from work, school, activities involving groups of people (e.g. sports training, group camps) and other situations where disease transmission may occur, until they have been asymptomatic for 24 hours and have normal stools.
Additional precautions for people who are at high risk of transmitting their infection or work in a high risk setting (i.e. workers in health care, residential care and child care, food handlers, young children in child care, and cases who are faecally incontinent, as shown in the table below): exclude until asymptomatic for 24 hours and has had two consecutive negative faecal specimens collected at least 24 hours apart.
Enteric precautions for hospitalised or institutionalised patients.
Case definition
Only confirmed cases should be notified.
Confirmed case
A confirmed case requires clinical evidence only.
Clinical evidence
1. Acute microangiopathic anaemia on peripheral blood smear (schistocytes, burr cells or helmet cells)
AND AT LEAST ONE OF THE FOLLOWING:
2. Acute renal impairment (haematuria, proteinuria or elevated creatinine level)
OR
3. Thrombocytopaenia, particularly during the first seven days of illness.
Note: Where STEC/VTEC is isolated in the context of HUS, it should be notified as both STEC/VTEC and HUS.
