Agence France-Presse
BERLIN // The number of people made ill by a mysterious killer bacterium grew yesterday, two weeks after the initial outbreak in Germany, while fears over tainted vegetables hit European farmers hard.
Madrid threatened to sue German officials who initially warned that the virulent bacterium, which has already killed 15 in Germany and one in Sweden, was borne by cucumbers imported from Spain before correcting their findings.
Fears meanwhile have shaken the agricultural sector, and not only in Spain.
Several countries have restricted vegetable imports, shops across Europe have withdrawn and dumped produce, while consumers have grown increasingly wary.
Scientists and health officials say they have identified the virulent E. coli bacterium responsible for the outbreak, which has mainly affected northern Germany, but are unable to say what caused it or who was responsible.
Confirmed cases of the full-blown disease, known as haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), a condition associated with bloody diarrhoea and kidney failure, rose to 470 from the 373 reported on Tuesday, said Germany's national disease institute, the Robert Koch Institute.
Regional officials say 15 people have died in Germany, while Sweden reported the death of one woman who had recently travelled to Germany.
The Spanish government meanwhile threatened to sue Hamburg for damages after the German city, one of the hardest hit, pointed to Spanish cucumbers as the source of a outbreak.
The country's deputy prime minister, Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba told Spanish radio: "We do not rule out taking action against the authorities who called into question the quality of our products."
Hamburg said it had found some of the killer bacteria on cucumbers imported from Spain, but later acknowledged it was not the same strand of enterohamorrhagic E. coli that is responsible for the current outbreak.
"As before, the source remains unidentified," Cornelia Pruefer-Storcks, the chief health official in Hamburg, said.
German officials, however, are maintaining their warning to consumers about eating raw cucumbers, tomatoes or lettuce, seen as the most likely source for the contamination, and the consumer affairs' ministry spokesman, Holger Eichele, told a news conference the Hamburg warning had been "justified".
"Given the potential risks, quick warnings were needed independently of the strand of bacterium involved," he said.
A spokesman for the German Federation of Farmers (DBV) meanwhile spoke of a "catastrophic" mood among vegetable producers.
The Federation of Fruit and Vegetable Producers, for its part, estimated losses at between €4 million and €5m a day.
Spain's vegetable and fruit exporters estimate damages of more than €200m a week as importers across Europe stop buying Spanish produce.
Both Spain and the Netherlands are demanding compensation from the European Union because of the sudden slump in vegetable exports.
Around Europe, cases of the food poisoning, confirmed or suspected, have been reported in Denmark, Britain, the Netherlands, Austria, France, Spain, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic.
All apparently stem from people who recently travelled to northern Germany, where the outbreak started in mid-May.
6c1f7d5b7db40310VgnVCM100000e56411acRCRDMystery remains over source of killer bacterium as more fall ill and vegetable producers' losses climb to €4m a day.
View the original article here
No comments:
Post a Comment