Human infections

In Denmark around 100,000 stool samples are analyzed annually from patients with symptoms of a gastrointestinal infection. In approximately 12,000 of these cases a disease-causing bacteria (fx salmonella, campylobacter, VTEC and yersinia) is found to be the like cause. The samples are analyzed either at the local departments of clinical microbiology or at Statens Serum Institut, SSI.

Positive cases must be reported to SSI as the entity responsible for monitoring bacterial infections in humans. The incidence of illness is also monitored in order to follow trends and detect clusters and possible disease outbreaks.

Statistics on the number of laboratory confirmed human cases are published on a page on SSI’s website (available in Danish only).