GERMANY’S E.COLI outbreak claimed its 17th victim yesterday as scientists identified the strain of bacteria behind the contamination as “super-toxic” and resistant to antibiotics.
Though identified, the precise source of food chain contamination remains unclear. Russia imposed a blanket ban on all vegetable imports from the EU, prompting an official protest from Brussels. Scientists disagreed yesterday on whether the bacteria that has infected about 1,600 people, 470 of them seriously, is a new mutation or a known, rare variety.
German and Chinese researchers said yesterday that close analysis suggested it was “a new type of E.coli strain”. The World Health Organisation (WHO) called it a “very rare form of the bacteria never seen in an outbreak before”.
However, last night the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said “serotype STEC 0104 has caused food-borne outbreaks of diarrhoea and haemolytic uraemic syndrome, or isolated cases, before.”
An online report on the centre’s journal, Eurosurveillance, refers to a 1994 outbreak in Montana and a single case in the Far East in 2006. The H4 variant of E.coli 0104 was identified as the cause in the 2006 case and is the variant currently identified from samples analysed in laboratories in Germany.
Commenting on the relative lack of children affected by haemolytic uraemic syndrome in the current outbreak, Eurosurveillance notes: “The age and sex distribution of this outbreak is highly unusual, the cases who died were between 22 and 91 years of age.” Two-thirds of those affected by the life-threatening illness are women.
The E.coli bacteria is common and found in human and animal digestive tracts. Some strains found in animals secrete toxins when they enter the human system, causing stomach cramps and bloody diarrhoea.
In serious cases it can lead to haemolytic uraemic syndrome, resulting in potentially fatal kidney failure and damage to the nervous system.
Investigators from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases are visiting those hospitalised with E.coli infections, quizzing them about their movements and eating habits in recent weeks.
German authorities believe the epicentre of the outbreak is Hamburg, though they are still in the dark about the outbreak’s exact source after ruling out earlier suspicions about Spanish cucumbers.
Those suspicions prompted a mass recall of Spanish vegetables across the Continent, causing huge losses for Spanish farmers and considerable political upset in Madrid. Yesterday farmers dumped unsold vegetables on the doorstep of the German consulate in Valencia. “To simply return to politics as usual after the mistakes made by the German authorities would be unfair,” said Spanish prime minister José Luís Rodriguez Zapatero. He has vowed to “seek reparations from the relevant authorities in Europe for the harm” Spanish vegetable producers estimate at €200 million a week in total.
German authorities have refused to apologise for going public with their concerns, insisting the cucumbers in question were tainted with a strain of E.coli, just not the one behind the outbreak – a claim Spanish authorities dispute.
Consumers and visitors to Germany are being urged to avoid salads, to boil all vegetables before eating and to regularly wash their hands.
Meanwhile Russian consumers were urged yesterday to buy domestic produce and avoid vegetables from the EU.
“Fresh vegetables produced in these countries will be withdrawn from circulation in Russian territory,” confirmed Gennady Onishchenko, head of Russia’s consumer protection agency. “This shows that Europe’s lauded health legislation – which Russia is being urged to adopt – does not work.”
The European Commission attacked the ban as “disproportionate” in a hugely important market worth €600 million annually – about a quarter of total EU vegetable exports.
“It’s hard to tell what lies behind Russia’s decision which, in the eyes of the commission is not justified,” said a commission spokesman.
Ireland’s vegetable trade with Russia which saw €4 million worth of last year’s bumper crop of potatoes exported there, will not be hit by the Russian ban as the last consignments went last month. Late last year for the first time, Ireland supplied potatoes to the Russian market as its crop was devastated by drought. No other vegetable crops are exported to Russia so the ban will not impact here.
Gerd Sonnleitner, head of the German Farmers’ Association, said his members had already suffered losses of €30 million and feared worse was to come thanks to the Russian ban.
In Moscow, the foreign ministry dismissed the EU’s protests yesterday. “This is a serious matter and any country would put in protection measures like this,” said ministry spokesman Alexander Lukaschewitsch.