IT IS “probably inevitable” that at some point cases of the E.Coli infection would be seen in this country due to people travelling to and from Germany, a senior microbiologist has said.
The number of fatalities caused by the outbreak yesterday increased to 18 in Germany after the death of an elderly woman in the central state of Thuringia following a trip to northern Germany. One person has died in Sweden following infection.
German doctors have said they are cautiously optimistic the epidemic has peaked, but warned that an effective therapy is not likely before next week at the earliest.
Dr Eleanor McNamara, director of the public health laboratory at the Health Service Executive, said because all the cases discovered so far had been related to travel to Germany, it was probably inevitable at some stage that a case of the E.coli bug would arise in Ireland.
“But whether we actually will get a case here, we don’t know.”
German doctors confirmed yesterday that the bacteria behind the epidemic is a seldom-seen strain, but they have not yet identified a source of the outbreak.
“We’re dealing with an offshoot strain and a hybrid clone which brings together the virulence characteristics of different pathogens,” said Prof Helge Karch of the University Clinic, Münster.
“The strain is not new but has appeared before, although it is extremely rare worldwide.”
Experts at Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment described the bacteria as a “recombination” that left the bacteria more virulent than other forms of E.coli, a bacteria found in the digestive tracts of humans and animals. When animal strains enter the human system, they cause health problems such as bloody diarrhoea and kidney failure.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has promised her Spanish counterpart that Germany will work to assist in applications for compensation for Spanish farmers.
Dr Merkel made the offer in a telephone call to José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero after German researchers incorrectly identified Spanish cucumbers as the source of the bacteria.
Four cucumbers bought in Hamburg were infected with a strain of E.coli, but not the one behind the epidemic. Spanish vegetable growers say the German false alarm has resulted in losses of more than €200 million on 150,000 tonnes of unsold produce across the Continent.
With nearly 2,000 infections – and about 400 cases of complications – the epidemic is the worst of its type on record.
The World Health Organisation confirmed yesterday the ongoing crisis surpassed a 1991 outbreak at a US fast-food restaurant chain that left 41 people with complications from haemolytic uremic syndrome, which is linked to E.coli. Twelve people in Japan were killed after contracting it amid a 1996 E.coli outbreak.
The organisation’s epidemiologists said it was too early to say whether the German E.coli strain would disappear or remain.
In Ireland, the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, the HSE and the Food Safety Authority are monitoring the situation.
Dr McNamara said the food authority had “significant strategies” in place to minimise food contamination.Anyone arriving from Germany with symptoms of mild or bloody diarrhoea should immediately seek medical advice.
Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney sought to reassure the public that food here was safe.
“If we thought there was any threat from imported products, we would act on that,” he said.
“But there is no evidence that exported food has caused the strain.”