 |
| The iceberg lettuce crop in a field near Cappeln, Germany, is destroyed after authorities widened the E coli alert. |
The source of the outbreak is still unknown, though the majority of those affected either live in Germany – particularly in or around the northern city of Hamburg – or have travelled there recently. The German disease control agency the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reported 365 new E coli cases today, a quarter of them involving the hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS), a serious complication resulting from E coli infection that affects the blood and kidneys.
European Union officials said three cases had also been reported in the United States, adding that most infections reported outside Germany involved German nationals or people who had recently travelled to the country. On Tuesday, a Swedish woman became the first person to die outside Germany after returning from a trip there.
On Wednesday, the northern state of Mecklenburg Western Pomerania issued a plea for blood donations in case the number of victims continues to rise. German authorities initially identified cucumbers imported from Spain as the likely source of the outbreak.
But on Tuesday they admitted further tests on the cucumbers showed that, while contaminated, they did not carry the bacterium strain responsible for the deaths. They have still not identified the cause, but raw lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers remain prime suspects, with authorities recommending that consumers in northern Germany avoid all three.
Spain said it was considering legal action after the false alarm. "We do not rule out taking action against authorities which have cast doubt on the quality of our produce, so action may be taken against the authorities, in this case, of Hamburg," deputy prime minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba told radio station Cadena Ser on Wednesday.
No comments:
Post a Comment