Source of the Escherichia Coli O157: H7 Outbreak in Yazd Students -2017

The outbreak of E.coli O157: H7 has been confirmed in human specimens in the spring of 1396 in one of the universities of Yazd. This study was designed to determine the source of infection. This is a case-control study in which 80 patients and 80 healthy students were examined. The formal validity and content of the questionnaire used was confirmed by the experts and the outbreak team. For data analysis, binary logistic regression and odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were by SPSS-19 software. In this study, cantaloupe syrup with the odds ratio of 47.37 had the highest factor in the incidence of disease. In the next stage, dinner and rice dinner with a chance ratio of 4.25 and 3.12 respectively, remained significantly in the model. Due to the high chance of cantaloupe syrup in this study and the available records such as laboratory confirmation of the presence of Escherichia coli O157: H7 in human samples and the report of the outbreak team on the preparation of cantaloupe syrup using a sitting meat grinder and also confirm similar studies in Possibility of presence Escherichia coli in raw foods such as meat, it can be concluded that the source of this outbreak was cantaloupe syrup contaminated with Escherichia coli O157: H7 via meat grinder.Keywords: Outbreak, Escherichia coli, Shiga toxin, O157: H7, Yazd.