E. coli Outbreak in Europe

[The Stig]

Original story from yahoo news (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110602/ap_on_he_me/eu_contaminated_vegetables_europe)


Outbreak in Europe blamed on 'super-toxic' strain

By MARIA CHENG and KIRSTEN GRIESHABER, Associated Press – 4 mins ago

LONDON – Scientists on Thursday blamed Europe's worst recorded food-poisoning outbreak on a "super-toxic" strain of E. coli bacteria that may be brand new.

But while suspicion has fallen on raw tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce as the source of the germ, researchers have been unable to pinpoint the food responsible for the frightening illness, which has killed at least 18 people, sickened more than 1,600 and spread to least 10 European countries.

An alarmingly large number of victims — about 500 — have developed kidney complications that can be deadly.

Chinese and German scientists analyzed the DNA of the E. coli bacteria and determined that the outbreak was caused by "an entirely new, super-toxic" strain that contains several antibiotic-resistant genes, according to a statement from the Shenzhen, China-based laboratory BGI. It said the strain appeared to be a combination of two types of E. coli.

"This is a unique strain that has never been isolated from patients before," Hilde Kruse, a food safety expert at the World Health Organization, told The Associated Press. The new strain has "various characteristics that make it more virulent and toxin-producing" than the many E. coli strains people naturally carry in their intestines.

However, Dr. Robert Tauxe, a foodborne-disease expert at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, questioned whether the strain is truly new, saying it had previously caused a single case in Korea in the 1990s. He said genetic fingerprints may vary from specimen to specimen, but that is not necessarily enough to constitute a new strain.

"Though it appears to have been around awhile, it hasn't called attention to itself as a major public health problem before," Tauxe said.

Elsewhere in Europe, Russia extended a ban on vegetables from Spain and Germany to the entire European Union to try to stop the outbreak spreading east, a move the EU quickly called disproportionate and Italy's farmers denounced as "absurd." No deaths or infections have been reported in Russia.

In Hamburg, Philipp, a 29-year-old photojournalist, was hospitalized on Monday after falling ill. He would not provide his last name because he did not want people to know he had the E. coli strain.

After suffering from stomach aches and bloody stools, he developed neurological symptoms and couldn't feel his left arm or leg. Despite three blood plasma transfusions to wash the toxins out of his blood, he hasn't improved.

Philipp said he recalls eating some vegetables the night before he got sick.

Some scientists suspect the deadly E. coli might have been in manure used to fertilize vegetables.

Kruse said it is not uncommon for bacteria to evolve and swap genes. It is difficult to explain where the new strain came from, she said, but bacteria from humans and animals easily trade genes.

Previous E. coli outbreaks have mainly hit children and the elderly, but this one is disproportionately affecting adults, especially women. Kruse said there might be something particular about the bacteria strain that makes it more dangerous for adults. Other experts said women tend to eat more produce.

Nearly all the sick either live in Germany or recently traveled there. British officials announced four new cases, including three Britons who recently visited Germany and a German on vacation in England.

The WHO recommends that to avoid food-borne illnesses, people wash their hands, keep raw meat separate from other foods, thoroughly cook their food, and wash fruits and vegetables, especially if eaten raw. Experts also recommend peeling raw fruits and vegetables if possible.

The fact that the strain may be new may have complicated the response to the outbreak.

"Officials may not have had the correct tests to detect it, which may explain the initial delay in reporting," said Paul Hunter, a professor of health protection at the University of East Anglia in England.

He said the number of new cases would probably slow to a trickle in the next few days. The incubation period for this type of E. coli is about three to eight days. "Salads have a relatively short shelf life and it's likely the contaminated food would have been consumed in one to two weeks," Hunter said.

But Hunter warned the outbreak could continue if there is secondary transmission of the disease, which often happens when children are infected. E. coli is present in feces and can be spread by sloppy bathroom habits, such as failure to wash one's hands.

Meanwhile, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero slammed the European Commission and Germany for singling out the country's produce early on as a possible source of the outbreak, and said the government would demand "conclusive explanations and sufficient reparations."

Spanish farmers say the accusations have devastated their credibility and exports. In Valencia, protesting farmers dumped some 300 kilos (700 pounds) of fruit and vegetables — cabbage, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and other produce — outside the German consulate.

The outbreak is already considered the third-largest involving E. coli in recent world history, and it may be the deadliest. Twelve people died in a 1996 Japanese outbreak that reportedly sickened more than 9,000, and seven died in a Canadian outbreak in 2000.

[The Stig]

Original story from CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/06/02/europe.e.coli/index.html?hpt=hp_t2)


World health officials scramble to stem deadly E. coli outbreak
By the CNN Wire Staff

(CNN) -- Infectious disease detectives worldwide rushed Thursday to find the cause of an outbreak of a rare strain of E. coli that has spread to 10 countries and is blamed for at least 16 deaths and hundreds of illnesses.

Nine patients in Germany had died of a form of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS, according to the World Health Organization, which cited Tuesday figures as its most recent. Six had died of enterohemorrhagic E. coli, EHEC, a strain of E. coli that causes hemorrhaging in the intestines and can result in abdominal cramps and bloody diarrhea. One person in Sweden has also died.

Across Europe, 499 cases of HUS and 1,115 cases of EHEC have been reported, WHO said on its website.

In addition to Germany and Sweden, cases have been identified in Austria, Denmark, France, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

All but two of the cases occurred in people who had recently visited northern Germany or, in one case, had contact with a visitor from northern Germany, the organization said.

Scientists at the Beijing Genomic Institute said the outbreak of infection in Germany is caused by a new "super-toxic" E. coli strain, though the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the strain has been seen before.

"We have very little experience with this particular strain, but it has been seen before," said Robert Tauxe, deputy director of the CDC's division of foodborne diseases.

The CDC said the strain is very rare and added that, while it is not aware of any cases ever having been reported in the United States, it is aware of a few previous reports of the strain in other countries. Britain's Health Protection Agency has said that the strain suspected in the outbreak is "rare" and "seldom seen in the UK."

Though WHO said it does not recommend any trade restrictions related to the outbreak, Russia announced a ban Thursday on fresh vegetable imports from the European Union.

Russia imposed the vegetable ban because "no one wants to get sick. It is a natural protective measure taken in response to events that are happening in Europe today," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said Thursday.

Gennady Onishchenko, head of the Russian Federal Agency for Health and Consumer Rights, issued a statement saying the ban will remain in effect "until we become convinced that this situation is resolved."

Customs officials have been instructed to prevent the produce from entering the country, according to Onishchenko, while supermarkets and food chains in Russia were told to withdraw European vegetables from their produce bins.

Frederic Vincent, the European Commission's health spokesman, called the move "disproportionate."

"The commission will be writing today to the Russian authorities, and we will be liaising and working with them in the coming days to try to find a solution," Vincent said. The commission is the EU's executive body.

Yelena Skrynnik, Russia's agriculture minister, issued a statement assuring Russians that, despite the ban, "the volume of home-grown vegetable production combined with exports (from other countries) is sufficient to fully meet Russia's domestic demand."

In 2010, the imports of tomatoes and cucumbers from the EU amounted to, respectively, 11% and 5% of all imports of those vegetables into Russia, the Russian Agriculture Ministry said.

The ban could potentially affect some larger cities in the European part of the country, where about 90% of vegetables are imported, said Sergey Shugayev, chairman of the Rural Russia Association.

China and Turkey are the two largest exporters of fresh vegetables into Russia, according to the Russian Greenhouses Association.

The European Food Safety Alert Network initially said EHEC was found in organic cucumbers originating from Spain, packaged in Germany and distributed to countries including Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg and Spain.

But authorities said Thursday the source had not been pinpointed.

Spain's Ministry of Health, Social Politics and Equality said Thursday that all samples of Spanish produce that it analyzed had proved negative.

Spain's ambassador to Britain, Carles Casajuana i Palet, told CNN that Spanish produce had been "completely cleared" and are "safe for all consumers." But, he added, the matter had damaged the country's growers "and we are sure there will have to be compensations" through the European Union.

Britain's Health Protection Agency on Thursday confirmed that there were four new cases in England suspected to be related to the outbreak, bringing the total number of cases in the country to seven.

The agency said that it was "reminding people traveling to Germany to follow the advice of the authorities and avoid eating raw tomatoes, cucumbers and leafy salad including lettuce, especially in the north of the country, until further notice. In addition, anyone returning from Germany with illness including bloody diarrhea should seek urgent medical attention and make sure they mention their recent travel history."

The ban on fresh vegetables from the European Union comes three days after Russia blocked the import of fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and salad greens from Germany and Spain. On Wednesday, the United Arab Emirates imposed a temporary ban on cucumbers from Spain, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands.

[The Stig]

Original story from Yahoo News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110602/ts_alt_afp/germanyspainfooddiseasehealthus_20110602192514)


Three suspected cases of mystery e-coli in US

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Health officials said Thursday three people in the United States are suspected to have fallen ill from e-coli bacteria after traveling to Germany where the mystery outbreak has killed 17.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was awaiting blood samples before any confirmation could be made, spokesman Tom Skinner told AFP. The suspected cases were not fatal.

Earlier, Britain said seven people there had been infected with the bacteria, including three British nationals who had recently traveled to Germany and four German nationals.

A total of 18 people in Europe have died from the outbreak, all but one of them in Germany.

German authorities have failed to pinpoint the source of the bacteria, which has sickened more than 2,000 people in the last month, but have warned consumers against eating raw vegetables.

The Enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) has caused full-blown haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), a potentially deadly disease that causes bloody diarrhea and serious liver damage, in 500 of those infected.

There were contradictory accounts as to whether the strain of E. coli was new, or whether Europe was witnessing the first outbreak of a rare but known type of bacteria that officials believe is carried by raw vegetables.

The outbreak was initially blamed on Spanish cucumbers by German officials who later admitted that they were in the dark about its origin.

[The Stig]

Original story from trust.org (http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/europe-ecoli-is-toxic-new-strain-trade-row-grows)


Europe E.coli is toxic new strain, trade row grows

by Kate Kelland

LONDON, June 2 (Reuters) - A highly infectious new strain of E.coli bacteria is causing a deadly outbreak of food poisoning in Germany, scientists said on Thursday, with cases in Europe and the United States raising the alarm worldwide.

Experts in China, part of a global network of laboratories racing to understand the sickness which killed a 17th victim overnight, said they had found the bug carried genes that made it resistant to several classes of antibiotics. [ID:nL3E7H219F]

The United Nations said the strain had not infected people before but some consumers, especially in Germany, said they were nervous about eating raw vegetables.

With around 1,500 people in Germany already ill in one of the worst recorded outbreaks of E.coli, Russia prompted international recriminations by banning imports of fresh vegetables from Europe and accusing Brussels of sowing chaos by failing to give enough information about the outbreak.

The precise source of the outbreak is unknown, but scientists say studies so far suggest it is highly likely to be contaminated vegetables or salads in Germany.

"This E.coli is a new strain of bacteria that is highly infectious and toxic," said the Chinese scientists at the Beijing Genomics Institute in Shenzhen city.

At the World Health Organisation, the United Nations health watchdog, a spokeswoman said: "This strain has never been seen in an outbreak situation before." [ID:nLDE7510VW]

E.coli infections can spread from person to person but only by what is known as the faecal-oral route. Health experts in Germany are advising strict hygiene regimes and recommending that consumers avoid eating raw salads and vegetables.

The outbreak is causing severe infections, mostly in female adults, and in a number of cases, serious complications affecting the blood and kidneys. Haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), an unusual complication of some types of E.coli, has been diagnosed in hundreds of the cases.

Russia's ban on Thursday on all raw vegetables from the European Union prompted cries of protest from the Polish and Dutch governments and a rebuke from the European Commission.

Moscow had already banned imports of vegetables from Germany and Spain because of the infections, which German officials originally blamed on contaminated cucumbers imported from Spain before backtracking and apologising to Madrid.

Gennady Onishchenko, head of Russia's consumer protection agency, said the deaths showed the "much-praised European sanitary legislation...does not work," Interfax news agency reported. [ID:nLDE75101Q].

In Germany, some consumers were worried the disease could even spread by human contact. A high-profile church event in the city of Dresden, attended by 120,000 people, was not serving raw vegetables altogether on Thursday, according to ZDF television.

"I noticed that there were no raw vegetables, which I found calming..." one attendee was quoted as saying.

Another participant added: "I've thought about what I can eat and what I can risk. Yesterday I noticed someone saying: yuk, there's lettuce on top of this."

In Moscow, shops prepared to dump EU vegetables and consumers expressed a mixture of scorn and pride at the ban. But some disagreed strongly, saying the threat was exaggerated.

"I am not afraid of buying vegetables from any country here," said pensioner Vyacheslav Yegorov, carrying a shopping basket filled with grapes and fresh vegetables. "This thing will blow over and be forgotten tomorrow."

"EXCESSIVE"

Spain is threatening legal action over the crisis. It wants compensation for its farmers, who say lost sales are costing them 200 million euros ($287 million) a week and could put 70,000 people out of work. [ID:nLDE7500Q7]

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero accused the European Commission of being slow to act and said Germany "should know that it has an overall responsibility to other states in the European Union".

"We shall ask for very forthright explanations and...demand sufficient reparations," he told Spanish state radio.

A statement from Spain's presidential office said Germany would consider measures to compensate Spanish farmers for the loss of sales. [ID:nLDE7511ZL]

The statement said Chancellor Angela Merkel had told Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero by telephone that she regretted the damage suffered by Spanish farmers.

Poland, which along with France and Germany is one of Europe's biggest exporters of fruits and vegetables to Russia, said Moscow's move was "excessive compared to the danger", while the Netherlands, famous for its mass-production of salad crops such as lettuce and tomatoes, described it as a major blow.

"After the collapse of the German consumer market, sales to Russia are now also impossible," the Dutch junior minister for economic affairs, agriculture and innovation Henk Bleker said.

EU countries exported 594 million euros ($853 million) worth of vegetables to Russia last year while EU imports of vegetables from Russia were just 29 million euros, EU data show. It was not clear what proportion of that was raw.

NASTY HYBRID

German officials have said there is "still is no indication of a definable source" for the outbreak and scientists are working around the clock to try to pinpoint it.

The contamination source is highly like to be somewhere in Germany, since all cases of infection are there or linked to it.

The WHO said it had also been notified of cases in Austria, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Britain. EU officials have said three cases have also been reported in the United States.

Almost all the cases are in people who had recently visited Germany. Many patients have been hospitalised, the WHO said, with several needing intensive care, including dialysis due to kidney complications.

Health experts say they are shocked by the outbreak, which is on a scale never seen before in the region. HUS frequently leads to kidney failure and can kill.

Whilst most strains of E.coli do not cause disease, some strains including this one are able to attach tightly to the wall of the intestines and produce toxins.

Stephen Smith, a microbiologist at Trinity College in Dublin said this strain appeared "to be a hybrid of two different E. coli types, which are nasty themselves".

The hybrid strain also contains the Shiga-like toxin from Enterohaemorrhagic E.coli, he said. This toxin binds to and damages kidney cells and can lead to potentially fatal HUS.

The Chinese scientists said the bacterium they identified was closely related to another E.coli strain called EAEC 55989 which has previously been found in Africa and is known to cause serious diarrhea. (Additional reporting by Filip Kochan in Warsaw, Gilbert Kreijger in Amsterdam, Annika Breidthardt and Eric Kelsey in Berlin; Alissa de Carbonnel and Steven Gutterman in Moscow, Raquel Castillo in Madrid, Foo Yun Chee in Brussels and Barbara Lewis in Geneva; writing by Kate Kelland; editing by Maria Golovnina)

[bacpacker]

Kinda makes me wonder about a engineered strain. Bio-Weapon possibly.

[RedJohn]

They killed the cucumber industry in Europe. They blamed tainted cucumbers from Spain at the origin. Nobody buy cucumbers from anywhere now although they ruled out that possibility now. They did not even apologize for that mistake.

[The Stig]

Just my luck. Set up to deal with hurricanes, wild fires, urban unrest, even rogue elephants but now I'm going to get wacked by a blood-thirsty bell-pepper.

Damn.

[RedJohn]

It is not like you did not know that veggies could kill. Hell, we know since 1978 that tomatoes could do it : Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_of_the_Killer_Tomatoes)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5a/Attack_of_the_Killer_Tomatoes.jpg

[bacpacker]

Good one RJ.
Whoever sabotages any industry never offer apologies. Think back to Toyota last summer. Same thing has happened many times all around the world. In some cases it almost has to be industrial and in some cases National sabotage. Toyota for example, disparage the #1 car company in the world and open the door back up for Goverment Motors and Chysler. Now NASA has proven there was no issue involved with the vehicles after all. No apologies ever made.

[The Stig]

Original story from AP (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_CONTAMINATED_VEGETABLES_EUROPE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-06-05-07-43-44)



E. coli outbreak blamed on German veggie sprouts

By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER and TOMISLAV SKARO
Associated Press

HAMBURG, Germany (AP) -- The terrifying E. coli outbreak in Europe appears to have been caused by vegetable sprouts grown on an organic farm in Germany, an agriculture official Sunday as the toll climbed to at least 22 dead and more than 2,200 sickened.

Preliminary tests found that bean sprouts and other sprout varieties from the farm in the Uelzen area, between the northern cities of Hamburg and Hannover, could be traced to infections in five German states, Lower Saxony Agriculture Minister Gert Lindemann said.

"There were more and more indications in the last few hours that put the focus on this farm," Lindemann said.

Many restaurants involved in what is now the deadliest known E. coli outbreak in modern history had received deliveries of the sprouts, which are often used in salads, Lindemann spokesman Gert Hahne told The Associated Press.

Definitive test results should be available Monday, Lindemann said.

In recent days, as health officials tried to pinpoint the source of the unusually lethal outbreak, suspicion fell on lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes, perhaps from Spain. Spanish farmers complained that the accusations were having a devastating financial effect.

"First it's the `evil' Spaniards, and then you hear, very surprised, that it is our neighbor," said Dietrich Benni, who lives near the German farm. "It's a bit scary all of this, especially that it is coming from an organic place."

He added: "No more organic food for me for now."

The farm was shut down Sunday and all its produce recalled, including fresh herbs, fruits, flowers and potatoes. Two of its employees were also infected with E. coli, Lindemann said. He said 18 different sprout mixtures from the farm were under suspicion, including sprouts of mung beans, broccoli, peas, chickpeas, garlic lentils and radishes.

As for how the sprouts became contaminated, Lindemann noted that they are grown with steam in barrels at 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit) - an ideal environment for bacteria to multiply.

He said it is possible that the water was contaminated with E. coli or that the sprout seeds - purchased in Germany and other countries - contained the germ. He said the farmers had not used any manure, which is commonly spread on organic farms and has been known to cause E. coli outbreaks.

Lindemann urged Germans not to eat sprouts until further notice. He said authorities could not yet rule out other possible sources and warned Germans to continue avoiding tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce for now.

AP journalists went to the farm on Sunday night, but nobody was available to talk. Telephone messages left at the farm's office were also immediately returned.

The outbreak has been blamed on a highly aggressive, "super-toxic" strain of E. coli, perhaps one that scientists have never seen before.

E. coli can be found in the feces of humans and livestock and can spread to produce through sloppy bathroom habits among farmworkers and through animal waste in fields and in irrigation water. Organic farms tend to use more manure than other producers do.

Sprouts have been implicated in previous E. coli outbreaks, particularly one in 1996 in Japan, where tainted radish sprouts killed 12 people and reportedly sickened more than 12,000 others.

The head of Germany's national disease control center raised the death toll to 22 Sunday - 21 in Germany and one in Sweden - and said an additional 2,153 people in Germany have been sickened. That figure included 627 people who have developed a rare, serious complication of the disease that can cause kidney failure. Ten other European nations and the U.S. have reported a total of 90 other victims.

Earlier Sunday, Germany's health minister fiercely defended his country's handling of the crisis as he toured a hospital in Hamburg, the epicenter of the emergency.

The comments by Health Minister Daniel Bahr reflected a sharp shift in his public response to the crisis and came after AP journalists reported on emergency room chaos and unsanitary conditions at the same hospital, the University Medical Center in Hamburg-Eppendorf.

On Saturday, Bahr admitted that hospitals in northern Germany were overwhelmed and struggling to provide beds and medical care for victims of the outbreak, and he suggested that other German regions start taking in sick patients from the north.

But after one E. coli survivor told the AP that conditions at the Hamburg hospital were horrendous when she arrived with cramps and bloody diarrhea, Bahr announced a visit and told reporters that German medical workers and northern state governments were doing "everything necessary" to help victims.

Nicoletta Pabst, 41, told the AP that sanitary conditions at the Hamburg-Eppendorf hospital were shocking and its emergency room was overflowing with ailing people when she arrived May 25.

"All of us had diarrhea and there was only one bathroom each for men and women - it was a complete mess," she said Saturday. "If I hadn't been sick with E. coli by then, I probably would have picked it up over there."

Doctors and nurses in northern Germany have been working overtime for weeks since the crisis began May 2.

---

Grieshaber reported from Berlin.

[The Stig]

Original story from AP (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_CONTAMINATED_VEGETABLES_SURVIVOR?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-06-05-05-32-06)


E.coli survivor describes pain, chaos at hospital

By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER

BERLIN (AP) -- Nicoletta Pabst could not believe what she saw twelve days ago when she rushed to a Hamburg hospital with stomach cramps, diarrhea and blood in her stool.

The emergency room at the University Medical Center in Hamburg-Eppendorf was engulfed by chaos, she said, overwhelmed as it tried to treat hordes of E. coli victims.

"All patients suspected of E. coli were led to a separate location for examination," Pabst told The Associated Press in an interview Saturday. "When I arrived, there were at least 20 other people and more and more kept coming in, many of them by ambulance."

She said the emergency room's sanitary conditions were horrendous.

"All of us had diarrhea and there was only one bathroom each for men and women - it was a complete mess," she said. "If I hadn't been sick with E. coli by then, I probably would have picked it up over there."

Hamburg is at the epicenter of the deadliest E. coli outbreak in modern history.

Germany's national disease control center raised the death toll Sunday to 22 people - 21 in Germany and one in Sweden - and said another 2,153 people in Germany have been sickened since May 2. That figure included 627 people who have developed a rare, serious complication of the disease that can cause kidney failure. Ten other European nations and the U.S. have reported a total of 90 other victims.

"We'd all been reading the scary news about the E. coli outbreak in our region for days," said Pabst, a 41-year-old homemaker. "(My husband) took me to the university hospital right away."

After waiting three hours to be seen, Pabst was told to go home because her blood levels did not indicate that she had kidney failure.

Germany's health minister has admitted that hospitals in Hamburg and other northern areas have been struggling to provide enough beds for all the infected patients. Several people have said they were initially turned down by hospitals only to return days later with much more severe symptoms. Doctors and nurses in the north have been working around the clock to handle the surge of patients.

Pabst's stomach cramps and bloody stools got worse during the night. The next morning she was so weak that she couldn't stand, and her husband called an ambulance.

She was hospitalized at Asklepios Hospital in Hamburg-Altona and taken to an isolation room that doctors and nurses were only allowed to enter while covered from head to toe in protective gowns, gloves and masks.

Health officials questioned her about the food she'd been eating, and as a precaution her children were blocked from going go to school.

Nobody else in Pabst's family got sick "even though we all ate the same tomatoes, cucumbers and salads," she remembered.

The cause of her infection seemed to point to home cooking at her house or a friend's, unlike earlier suggestions that many people may have been infected while visiting a port festival in Hamburg or a restaurant in the northern German city of Luebeck.

Pabst had to stay at the hospital for a week.

"For the first two days, I was completely exhausted, nodding off, not aware at all of what was happening around me," Pabst remembered. She was put on an intravenous drip and her doctor decided to treat her with antibiotics despite recommendations by the World Heath Organization and the German health ministry not to do so.

There have been frequent reports about German doctors treating patients with unconventional, non-approved therapies like antibody treatment or antibiotics, often simply because traditional treatments do not improve the patients' health.

Friedrich Hagenmueller, the medical director of Asklepios Hospital, treated Pabst with antibiotics early on "because what we had been doing so far in this outbreak hasn't been very successful."

"Her quick recovery has encouraged me to try out antibiotics on other incoming patients as well," Hagenmueller told the AP.

Hans-Joerg Epple, a gastroenterologist at Berlin's Benjamin-Franklin-Hospital, said while antibiotics were normally not given to E. coli patients, some experts were looking into treating the current E. coli strain with specific kinds of antibiotics.

"It is quite unusual and we don't have a lot of data on this, but there are indications that some kinds of antibiotics may be helpful here," Epple said.

Bahr, the German health minister, made a surprise visit Sunday to the University Medical Center in Hamburg-Eppendorf only hours after the AP reported on the shocking conditions there.

Pabst's recovery started 48 hours after she'd received her first dose of antibiotics and on Wednesday she was discharged from the hospital. Her children will be allowed to go back to school now and Pabst said she's feeling healthy again herself.

"One thing's for sure: as long as the cause of the E. coli outbreak has not been found, there'll be no more vegetables or fruit in our house," Pabst said. "We're only eating deep-frozen meals and spaghetti these days."

© 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

[The Stig]

Observation #1: This lady was completely out of it and oblivious to the world around her. Imagine being that way post-SHTF event because you ate some bad bean curd.

Observation #2: If hospitals can be overwhelmed by people with the shits, imagine what happens during a longer term, or more serious SHTF event.

[bacpacker]

I would have hated to be on the hospital staff, no idea what all's going on intially and tons of people pouring in.

One thing that jumped out at me, the WHO saying not to administer antibiotics, when they actually worked. Dr's should be left alone to work. The dr had already seen that the WHO's route wasn't working and took it on himself to try something different.

That would wipe folks out quick in a SHTF situation.

[LUNCHBOX]

I know I don't know enough about medicine to keep me alive in a situation like that. Its great to know that someone else will tell the Dr's to stop helping also. Very nice.

[The Stig]

Original story at Yahoo (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Sprouts-not-apparently-cause-apf-3053086206.html?x=0)


Germany backtracks on sprouts for E. coli source
Germany says no proof organic sprouts caused E. coli outbreak; expert calls probe 'a disaster'

BERLIN (AP) -- In their second major retraction in a week, German officials said initial tests provided no evidence that sprouts from an organic farm in northern Germany were the cause of the deadly E. coli outbreak. One U.S. expert called the German investigation "a disaster."

The surprise U-turn came only a day after the same state agency, Lower Saxony's agriculture ministry, held a news conference to announce that sprouts from the organic Gaertnerhof farm in the northern village of Bienenbuettel were suspected to be the cause of the outbreak. The ministry shut down the farm, recalled all its produce and sent an alert urging Germans not to eat any more sprouts.

Last week, German officials pointed to contaminated cucumbers from Spain as a possible cause, igniting vegetable bans and heated protests from Spanish farmers. Researchers later concluded the Spanish cucumbers were contaminated with a different strain of E. coli.

"This investigation has been a disaster," Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, told The Associated Press.

"This kind of wishy-washy response is incompetent," he said, slamming German authorities for casting suspicion on cucumbers and sprouts without firm data.

But the European Union's Health Commissioner defended German investigators, saying they were under extreme pressure as the crisis kept unfolding.

"We have to understand that people in certain situations do have a responsibility to inform their citizens as soon as possible of any danger that could exist to them," John Dalli said in Brussels.

German Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner on Monday reiterated the warning against eating sprouts, as well as tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce.

But the German flip-flop on the sprouts means there is still no confirmed source for the deadliest known E. coli outbreak, which has already killed least 22 people and sickened more than 2,330 across Europe.

Over 630 of those victims are hospitalized with a rare, serious complication that can lead to kidney failure, and even E. coli victims without that condition have found themselves hospitalized for days with diarrhea and bloody stools. Hospitals in northern Germany have been overwhelmed by the crisis, with doctors and nurses working double shifts for weeks.

On Monday, the agriculture ministry for Lower-Saxony state said 23 of 40 samples from the organic sprouts farm tested negative for the highly aggressive, "super-toxic" strain of E. coli bacteria. It said tests were still under way on 17 other sprout samples from the farm.

"The search for the outbreak's cause is very difficult, as several weeks have passed since its suspected start," the ministry said in a statement, cautioning that further testing of the sprouts and their seeds was necessary.

However, negative test results on sprout or seed batches do not mean that previous sprout batches weren't contaminated.

"Contaminated food could have been completely processed and sold by now," admitted ministry spokeswoman Natascha Manski.

Osterholm, whose team has investigated a number of foodborne outbreaks in the U.S., said finding negative results in about half of the sprout tests was "meaningless" because it was possible that only a few sprouts in the entire batch were contaminated.

He said the contamination could be at such a low level that tests wouldn't pick it up and that to narrow down the source, more detailed studies of patients -- what they ate and where -- were necessary.

He also recommended that authorities should then trace back those food sources to their suppliers -- which is exactly what led German officials to single out the sprout producer as a possible source, linking it to several restaurants where more than 50 people fell ill.

Since 1996, about 30 outbreaks of foodborne illness in the U.S. have been linked to raw or lightly cooked sprouts. Sprouts were also implicated a 1996 E. coli outbreak in Japan that killed 12 people and reportedly sickened more than 9,000.

The Lower Saxony ministry statement left consumers across the continent still puzzled as to what is safe to eat and warned that it was not clear how soon an answer would be found.

"A conclusion of the investigations and a clarification of the contamination's origin is not expected in the short term," the ministry said.

Andreas Hensel, the head of Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, added that it might never be possible to establish the outbreak's cause.

"We have to be clear on this: Maybe we won't be able anymore to identify the source," he told reporters in Berlin.

At an European Union health ministers meeting Monday in Luxembourg, Germany defended itself against claims it had acted prematurely in pointing toward Spanish cucumbers.

"The virus is so aggressive that we had to check every track," said Health State Secretary Annette Widmann-Mauz.

The EU will hold an emergency meeting of farm ministers Tuesday to address the crisis and its economic impact, including a ban by Russia on all EU vegetables.

At the organic farm in Bienenbuettel, between the northern cities of Hamburg and Hannover, there was no immediate reaction Monday by the owners. The gates remained locked. Two security guards patrolled while scores of television satellite trucks and journalists waited outside and a TV helicopter circled overhead.

Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, David Rising in Bienenbuettel, Raf Casert in Brussels and Daniel Wools in Madrid and AP Medical Writer Maria Cheng in London contributed to this report.

[RedJohn]

They have no idea at this time about the origin. At the same time, it does not look like there are more cases.

[bacpacker]

I wondered about new cases. Glad to hear that news.

[RedJohn]

Cases seem stable, but 2 persons died from it yesterday.

[bacpacker]

Makes me wonder if there is a news blackout or at least the media is off to something else. Simialr to what's happening in Japan. for 3 weeks or so that's all you heard then about that quick almost nothing. The problem is still there and is nowhere near contained, probably never will be. But the media says nothing, or next to nothing about it.

[RedJohn]

Makes me wonder if there is a news blackout or at least the media is off to something else. Simialr to what's happening in Japan. for 3 weeks or so that's all you heard then about that quick almost nothing. The problem is still there and is nowhere near contained, probably never will be. But the media says nothing, or next to nothing about it.

No, we just revert to another post here. If it isn't news, they don't care anymore. There is always a bigger story to tell.

[RedJohn]

They say that this time they identified the source. It was in a batch of Soja Sprouts. It was from a place in Germany that delivered to North Germany only.

[The Stig]

And another update from the NY Times....
(http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/30/world/middleeast/30ecoli.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss)


Egyptian Seeds Are Linked to E. Coli in Germany and France
By WILLIAM NEUMAN and SCOTT SAYARE
Published: June 29, 2011

European investigators fitting together the puzzle pieces of devastating E. coli outbreaks in Germany and France cautiously identified a likely source on Wednesday: contaminated fenugreek seeds from Egypt.

Officials also said that the seeds seemed to have entered Europe through a single German importer, which acted as a distributor to other companies.

A report by the European Food Safety Authority said that sprouts grown from fenugreek seeds imported from Egypt in 2009 and 2010 “are implicated in both outbreaks.” But it added that “there is still much uncertainty about whether this is truly the common cause of the infections” because tests on the seeds had not yet found any of the deadly E. coli, a rare strain known as O104:H4. Food safety experts say, however, that the bacteria can contaminate one seed in thousands and that it is very difficult to isolate in seed samples.

The devastating E. coli outbreak first surfaced in Germany in early May, eventually striking more than 4,000 people, nearly all of whom lived in Germany or had traveled there. The bacteria causes acute diarrhea and, in severe cases, kidney failure. At least 48 people died, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

The German authorities concluded the outbreak was caused by contaminated sprouts produced by a grower in northern Germany. The German grower produced many different types of sprouts, often selling them in mixes, and investigators were apparently unable to definitively identify a single variety as the culprit, despite some early accounts that blamed bean sprouts.

As the German outbreak began to wane in mid-June, a fresh wave of illness involving the same E. coli strain was identified in the Bordeaux region of France.

The French authorities said many of the people who fell ill had eaten sprouts from a mix of three varieties, including fenugreek.

Public health experts in the United States said that the French outbreak, in which about 16 people fell ill, may have helped investigators in the German episode to focus on the three varieties of sprouts, looking for common threads. The food safety authority’s report said the fenugreek seeds came into Europe from Egypt in two shipments, one in 2009 and one in 2010.

Ian Polombi, an authority spokesman, said a single importer in Germany handled the shipments. The report said that seeds from the 2010 lot were sold to the German sprouter implicated in the outbreak there, while seeds from the 2009 lot went to a British company that packed them and sold them to a retailer in France.

The French authorities last week said that the British seed company Thompson & Morgan had packaged the sprouting seeds that were tied to the Bordeaux E. coli cluster. A Thompson & Morgan spokeswoman said Wednesday that the company would not identify its suppliers.

Fenugreek resembles wild clover; its seeds and leaves are used as flavorings in China, South Asia and some Mediterranean countries. The Thompson & Morgan Web site says fenugreek sprouts have “a spicy curry flavor” and are high in vitamins A and C.

William Neuman reported from New York, and Scott Sayare from Athens.

[RedJohn]

This is funny. They don't tell us this and I am there. Lucky for me, I have a good source of information here.

[bacpacker]

I dare say it's that way here if the problem is here. At least till the word spreads locally, or a "in tune" Dr or Nurse lets the cat outta the bag and it hits the NET.