[Current status of gastrointestinal infection in Japan--with special reference to enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli infection].

The annual incidence of gastrointestinal infections such as bacillary dysentery, typhoid fever and paratyphoid fever has declined markedly since the early 1960s. However, in parallel with the increase of international travel, the incidence of imported cases from abroad has recently tended to increase. Moreover, similar to North America and Europe, food-borne infections such as Salmonella food poisoning due to serovar Enteritidis and enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli infection has increased dramatically recently. In this paper, the current trend of gastrointestinal infections in Japan was discussed from the epidemiologic and bacteriologic view points.