Large and prolonged food-borne multistate hepatitis A outbreak in Europe associated with consumption of frozen berries, 2013 to 2014
Eurosurveillance·
- DOI
- 10.2807/1560-7917.es2015.20.29.21192
- PMID
- 26227370
- PMCID
- —
- OpenAlex
- W2145312894
- Study type
- Outbreak investigation
- Publisher
- European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC)
- Article type
- journal-article
- Integrity
- current
Why this research matters now
The event underscores the vulnerability of the EU/EEA general population to large food-borne hepatitis A outbreaks and flags frozen berries, distributed through international food trade, as a potential high-risk food, prompting recalls, public advice to heat-treat berries, and post-exposure prophylaxis of contacts.
Structured evidence summary
Research question
The study describes a multinational outbreak investigation launched after Italy declared a national hepatitis A event in May 2013, aiming to determine its scope, vehicle, and control measures across affected EU/EEA countries.
Study design
Multistate outbreak investigation combining molecular typing with harmonised national epidemiological and microbiological enquiries, coordinated internationally after the initial signal.
Population and setting
Cases occurred across multiple EU/EEA countries between January 2013 and August 2014, including Italian residents and foreign tourists with recent travel to Italy, with broader locally acquired and travel-related cases reported across the region.
Main findings
From January 2013 to August 2014, 1,589 outbreak-associated hepatitis A cases were reported, of which around 70% were hospitalised for a median of six days, with two related deaths. Epidemiological and microbiological evidence pointed to mixed frozen berries as the outbreak vehicle.
Public-health relevance
The event underscores the vulnerability of the EU/EEA general population to large food-borne hepatitis A outbreaks and flags frozen berries, distributed through international food trade, as a potential high-risk food, prompting recalls, public advice to heat-treat berries, and post-exposure prophylaxis of contacts.
Important limitations
This summary is limited to the supplied single-article abstract and bibliographic metadata; the full original paper is required for decision-grade interpretation, and specific methodological limitations are not detailed in the available evidence.
GIDS interpretation
The article is discoverable through GIDS classifiers tagged for hepatitis A, Italy, outbreak investigation, and travel medicine; it provides historical outbreak context only and is not linked here to any live surveillance signal.
Related GIDS surveillance
Literature context does not validate, explain, or change a surveillance signal. Exact and contextual relationships are shown separately.
Evidence relationships
This article has 8 auditable classifier relationships to diseases, places, topics, and study design.