Swedish hepatitis A outbreak expands with 11 sick

The number of people sick in a hepatitis A outbreak in Sweden linked to frozen berries has risen to 11.

From mid-September to the end of 2025, seven people were infected with the same type of hepatitis A virus belonging to genotype IA. They had all eaten frozen imported strawberries and raspberries which had not been heated before consumption.

However, the suspected source of infection could not be confirmed as the virus was not detected in any berry samples.

In February and March 2026, four more people fell ill. They had also eaten frozen strawberries and raspberries. The 11 patients are six men and five women aged between 17 and 64 years old and live in different parts of the country.

The Swedish Food Agency (Livsmedelsverket) and the Public Health Agency of Sweden (Folkhälsomyndigheten) are involved in the investigation.

Hepatitis A is a virus that can cause a liver infection. Symptoms last a few days to several months and begin 15 to 50 days a patient is infected. They range from mild to severe and include an abrupt onset of fever, fatigue, poor appetite, nausea, stomach pain, dark-colored urine and jaundice, which is a yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes.

2025 situation
Folkhälsomyndigheten has also released figures on the number of illnesses caused by some of the major pathogens in 2025.

Listeria infections increased and reached the highest level ever reported. In 2025, there were 158 cases compared to 114 in 2024.

A contributing factor was an outbreak at a restaurant in Stockholm. There were 16 confirmed cases who fell sick after eating at the venue. In 20 other people, the outbreak strain was detected in stool samples, which was not notifiable according to the case definition. The same type of Listeria found in patients was also detected in several food and environmental samples from the restaurant but no one food item could be named with certainty as the source of infection. The outbreak was unusual as those who fell ill were relatively young and did not belong to any risk group.

Based on typing data, 95 isolates belonged to 29 different clusters, of which 14 also contained isolates identified before 2025. Officials said this indicates ongoing and long-term spread from unknown sources of infection.

Salmonella infections fell by 11 percent to 1,431 cases compared to the previous year. The decrease is mainly because there were several large outbreaks in 2024.

Despite this decline, several outbreaks were investigated in 2025, including a major Salmonella Enteritidis incident with 118 cases linked to Swedish egg production. The outbreak was national but affected a nursing home where many people fell ill.

Almost 50 people were sick with similar Salmonella strains that caused a large outbreak in 2024 linked to alfalfa sprouts from contaminated seeds produced in Italy. This involved Salmonella Typhimurium, Richmond, Kinondoni, and Newport.

Infections caused by cryptosporidium also increased. In a major outbreak in the spring, Swedish kale was suspected of being the source of infection.

For Campylobacter, E. coli, Shigella and hepatitis A, the number of cases was largely unchanged compared to 2024.

In 2025, 5,463 cases of Campylobacter were reported, compared to 5,440 in 2024. The incidence for people sickened in the country was slightly higher than for people infected outside Sweden. Spain and Thailand topped the list of travel-related cases.

In total, 908 E. coli infections were recorded. This is slightly more than the 848 cases in 2024. The proportion of cases infected in Sweden was 62 percent. For people infected abroad, the main countries were Egypt and Turkey. From 386 analyzed isolates, 88 serotypes were identified. The most common types were, as in previous years, O157:H7, O26:H11 and O103:H2.

There were 30 hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) cases in E. coli patients. Eight serotypes were found from 20 typed isolates including O26:H11 eight times and O157:H7 on four occasions.

For Yersinia, a sharp decrease was seen, with cases halving between 2024 and 2025. The decrease is largely because of a change in the case definition for 2025 that clarifies which types of Yersinia must be reported.

Source: https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2026/04/swedish-hepatitis-a-outbreak-expands-with-11-sick/