German authorities conducted tests yesterday on locally grown sprouts suspected of being the source of an E. coli outbreak which has killed 22 and left about 2,000 ill across Europe.
Gert Lindermann, agriculture minister in the northern state of Lower Saxony, announced on Sunday that a link had been found between a small farm producing a variety of sprouts and “all the main outbreaks” of the disease in the country.
However, German federal Health Minister Daniel Bahr and the Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s main health institute, warned against rushing to judgment.
“For the time being we are careful not to rush to premature judgments,” Bahr said on television.
Germany last week was strongly criticized by Spain’s government after officials in Hamburg warned the outbreak might be linked to cucumbers imported from Spain.
“We have clear indications that a farm in the district of Uelzen is a likely source of the contamination, but we must first wait for the results of the laboratory tests,” Bahr added.
Andreas Hensel, head of Germany’s federal Risk Assessment Institute, said that “we can’t be sure that the sprouts are responsible.”
News of the possible breakthrough came about a month after people were first infected in northern Germany.
The outbreak, which has spread to a dozen other European countries, has caused chaos among Europe’s vegetable growers after Germany warned against eating raw cucumbers, tomatoes or lettuce.
The death toll has climbed to 22, according to latest figures by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. All but one of the deaths occurred in Germany. The other was in Sweden.
Initial tests from a farm producing the sprouts showed contamination by the bacteria, Lindermann told a news conference.
Sprouts cultivated there include those from lettuce, azuki beans, mung beans, fenugreek, alfafa and lentils. Some of the seeds had been imported from abroad.
Early indications are that the farm “is at least one of the sources of contamination,” he added.
The sprouts grow in temperatures of 37oC, “which is ideal for all bacteria,” Lindermann said.
The farm is in the village of Bienenbuettel, about 80km south of Hamburg, one of the main cities hit by the outbreak.
Authorities said further test results were expected to be announced yesterday or today.
Bahr, who on Sunday visited Hamburg’s Eppendorf University clinic where many patients are -being treated, has warned the source could still be active.
“Food health officials are working around the clock to identify the source of the infection,” Bahr said. “But from earlier outbreaks, we know that we can’t always identify the source.”
“It can’t be ruled out that the source of infection is still active,” he added, calling for continued vigilance as authorities still counsel against eating raw tomatoes, lettuce and cucumbers.
Bahr said also the situation in a number of hospitals, especially Hamburg and Bremen, was “difficult” because of the high number of admissions.
Hospital authorities said blood supplies were running low and staff were exhausted and working round-the-clock, with the northern cities of Hamburg and Bremen the worst affected.
“They [the doctors] voluntarily come in on weekends and even sleep here,” Oliver Grieve, a spokesman for the Kiel University hospital in northern Germany, told Der Spiegel Online.
Hamburg’s health minister, Cornelia Prufer-Storcks, told a news conference on Sunday the city was considering bringing doctors out of retirement.
“We want to discuss with doctors about whether those who recently retired can be reactivated,” she said.
Patients with less serious illnesses are now being moved to nearby hospitals and operations for non-threatening diseases are being postponed.
A spokesman for Regio Clinics, the largest private hospital in the state of Schleswig Holstein, told Reuters: “All the hospitals in the region are pushing their limits. We can handle it, but some of our patients have to be sent to other hospitals, especially those with HUS [haemolytic uraemic syndrome] or needing dialysis.”
Meanwhile, EU agriculture ministers are to hold an emergency meeting today on the outbreak and its impact on vegetable producers, an EU spokesman said yesterday.
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