A young woman from Guildford has been left in a critical condition in hospital after she contracted E.coli O55.

Alexander Brock of Get Surrey writes the victim and her sister, whose family have asked us not to name, both fell ill within hours of each other on Saturday September 16.

Public Health England (PHE) confirmed it was investigating “a confirmed case of E.coli O55 in Surrey.”

The eldest of the two sisters, aged 22, recovered after a few days of having symptoms such as diarrhoea and abdominal pain.

However, the health of the younger sister, 19, quickly deteriorated and she was rushed to Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford a few days after becoming ill.

She then suffered kidney failure, which developed into hemolytic uremic syndrome.

This led to several of her organs failing, including her heart. The woman has been in critical condition at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London since September 27.

The strain has been confirmed as E.coli O55, which 31 people contracted in an outbreak in Dorset between July 2014 and November 2015.

In a statement, PHE added there had been other recorded E.coli cases in children in neighbouring areas which have been “identified as being potentially linked.”