Enhanced detection of sporadic Escherichia coli O157:H7 infections--New Jersey, July 1994.

Infection with Escherichia coli O157:H7 causes an estimated 20,000 cases of diarrhea in the United States each year. Although E. coli O157:H7 can be isolated using commercially available media, many clinical laboratories do not routinely test stool samples for the organism. In 1993, the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists recommended that clinical laboratories begin culturing all bloody stools--and optimally all diarrheal stools--for E. coli O157:H7 (1). This report describes the investigation of a pseudo-outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 infection that occurred in New Jersey during July 1994 after a year-long increase in the number of laboratories culturing all diarrheal specimens for this pathogen.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)