Surveillance of enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157:H7 in southern Thailand.

In recent years, several studies have reported infections associated with Escherichia coli O157:H7, especially in developed countries (1). Except Japan, isolation of E. coli O157:H7 has also been reported in Asian countries (2). Limited work has been carried out on E. coli O157:H7 in Thailand (3,4). Suthienkul et al. reported no E. coli O157 in retail meat and cattle (3), but it was recently isolated from retail beef and bovine faeces (4). So far, no study on clinical features of this highlydangerous pathogen has been carried out in Thailand. We, therefore, conducted a surveillance of E. coli O157:H7 in the clinical specimens and food samples in southern Thailand during 1999-2001.