TRENDS IN EPIDEMIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF ENTEROHEMORRHAGIC ESCHERICHIA COLI INFECTIONS IN KOREA AND JAPAN, 2008 TO 2017

Hyeong-Ae Bang Ph.D., Myeong-Jin Lee, Ph.D. and Won-Chang Lee, Ph.D.*

ABSTRACT

Background: Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) are an important cause of gastroenteritis in Korea and Japan. We comparative study the epidemiologic aspects of EHEC infections in Korea (Republic of) and Japan by analyzing the current state from 2008 to 2017. Methods: We collected national surveillance data of EHEC infections reported in Korea and Japan from 2008 to 2017. The following factors were analyzed: cumulative incidence rate (CIR) of nationwide and habitat, epidemiologic aspects include the cases related gender, male to female morbidity ratio (MFMR), age, seasonality of EHEC infections. Results: In total, there were 790 cases of EHEC infections with a CIR of 0.16 per 100,000 populations in Korea from 2008 to 2017 in Korea, while there were a total of 39,371 cases of EHEC with a CIR of 3.13 during the same period in Japan. The CIR in Japan was higher than that in Korea (p<0.01). Moreover, both a CIR of EHEC in habitat of two countries were compared, the provinces were much higher than that in capital city. The affects of MFMR, both sexes differently, accounting for 1.05 and 0.82 in Korea and Japan, respectively. The distribution rate of EHEC infection cases by age group of under-9-years old was 50.0% in Korea than that of 32.9% in Japan (p<0.01). Additionally, the distribution of EHEC infections throughout the year revealed that outbreaks in spring (16.0% vs. 10.2% of total cases) was much more frequent in Korea than in Japan (p<0.01). However, EHEC outbreaks in autumn (21.0% vs. 28.6%) was much more frequent in Japan than in Korea (p<0.01). Conclusion: EHEC infections is an zoonosis and a serious concern to public health measures of prevention and control.

Keywords: EHEC infections, epidemic aspects, Korea, Japan.