Last year, more Swedes than ever sought hospital care after being infected with the ehec bacteria, figures from the Public Health Agency show.

The majority of them, 68 percent, were infected in Sweden.

It's no coincidence, believes Marie-Louise Danielsson-Tham, professor of food hygiene at Örebro University.

The professor believes that the increase is at least partly due to prevailing food trends.

An example is hamburgers, which should ideally be pink in the middle, according to the recipe.

Absolutely crazy, according to Marie-Louise Danielsson-Tham.

- Minced meat that is not cooked through can contain ehec and it takes very few bacteria to make you sick - ten bacteria is enough, she says.

Last year, 857 people sought hospital care for ehec, 185 were children.

Higher mortality than salmonella

In order for the bacteria to die, minced meat dishes must always be heated to 70 degrees.

The Ehec bacteria can be found in, among other things, beef and mutton and is several times more contagious than salmonella, where it takes several hundreds of thousands of bacteria to make you sick.

Ehec also has a higher mortality rate than salmonella.

Deaths from ehec occur but are unusual, according to the Public Health Authority.

- Children under the age of five and older are most sensitive to the bacteria, but even healthy adults can become seriously ill with bloody diarrhea and damaged kidneys, says Marie-Louise Danielsson-Tham.

Other sources of infection

According to the food professor, about ten percent of everyone who gets infected gets kidney damage.

In the past, it was believed that the kidney damage healed after dialysis, but now we know that this is not always true.

Sometimes the damage is permanent.

Even raw beef and other mince dishes that are not cooked through can contain ehec, as well as vegetables that have been fertilized with cow manure with live bacteria, i.e. manure that has not been burned.

- It can be enough to lick your fingers after handling raw minced meat to get sick.

In the clip, Marie-Louise Danielsson-Tham talks about the ehec bacteria and how to avoid it.