E coli deaths rise to 16 with first outside Germany

Outbreak kills two more and reaches Sweden, as total infected rises above 1,150 and Spain complains of blame and import ban A deadly E coli outbreak has claimed two more lives, including the first fatality outside Germany, as an international row escalated over the source of the bacteria. Sixteen people are now confirmed to have died from the outbreak – which was initially linked to organic Spanish vegetables – including a woman in Sweden who had recently returned from a trip to Germany. Spanish vegetable growers vigorously denied that their cucumbers were to blame, and said the scare had caused exports of all fruit and vegetables to plummet after Germany, Austria and Russia imposed bans. They accused German authorities of covering up the real cause of the outbreak and asked socialist prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to intervene on their behalf. Hospital authorities in the northern Spanish city of San Sebastián, meanwhile, said they were investigating a suspected case of E coli in a patient who recently returned from Germany. The Spanish agriculture minister, Rosa Aguilar, said Spain would be demanding compensation for all European vegetable producers who had experiences losses because of the health scare. Aguilar insisted Spanish vegetables were “safe” and suggested the Germans should look for the cause at home. “Germany should stop looking at Spain,” said the minister. “We are disappointed with the way that Germany has dealt with this crisis.” In Germany, investigators said they still had not found a definitive cause for the outbreak. The Robert Koch institute, Germany’s national disease authority, said they had never pointed the finger of blame at the Spaniards. Hamburg state health minister Cornelia Prüfer-Storcks, who was the first official to point the finger at Spain last Thursday, has since insisted that she was right to go public with preliminary test results from the Hamburg institute for hygiene and environment, which suggested Spanish cucumbers were the source. “It would have been irresponsible to withhold a well-founded suspicion given the high number of illnesses,” she said. “Protecting life is more important than protecting financial interests.” But Prüfer-Storcks said that tests on two of the vegetables had found a different strain of E coli from the one carried by patients in the city. “Our hope of discovering the source of the cases of severe complications with [hemolytic uremic syndrome] HUS unfortunately has not been fulfilled by these first results,” said the minister. European Union officials have said that the cucumbers could have been contaminated at any point along the route from Spain to Germany. Such remarks have done little to quell Spanish anger. “We must demand that Germany finishes its investigation, admits its error and accepts that this is a domestic problem,” said José María Pozancos, head of the Spanish fruit and vegetable export body Fepex. Some 150,000 tons of Spanish fruit and vegetables are piling up every week, with losses running at €200m a week, according to Fepex. As the bickering continues, the death toll rises. In Boras, Sweden, authorities announced the death of woman in her 50s who was admitted on 29 May after a trip to Germany. In Paderborn, Germany, the local council said an 87-year-old woman also suffering from other ailments had died. The national disease control centre in Germany said 373 people were sick with the most serious form of the outbreak HUS, a rare complication arising from an infection most commonly associated with E coli. That figure was up from the 329 reported on Monday. Susanne Glasmacher, a spokeswoman for the Robert Koch Institute, said another 796 people have been affected by the bacteria making a total of more than 1,150 people infected. Germany’s federal institute for risk assessment is still warning consumers to avoid all cucumbers, lettuces and raw tomatoes as the outbreak is investigated. EU officials have said that German authorities identified cucumbers from the Spanish regions of Almeria and Malaga as possible sources of contamination and that a third suspect batch, originating either in the Netherlands or in Denmark and traded in Germany, is also under investigation. The Danish veterinary and food administration said on Tuesday that no traces of E coli bacteria were found in tests conducted over the weekend. “There is therefore nothing that indicates that Danish cucumbers are the source of the serious E coli outbreak that has infected several patients in Germany, Denmark and Sweden,” the agency said. On Monday Russia’s chief sanitary agency banned the imports of cucumbers, tomatoes and fresh salad from Spain and Germany pending further notice. It said in a statement that it may even ban the imports of fresh vegetables from all EU member states due to the lack of information about the source of infection. E coli Germany Spain Sweden Austria Russia Denmark Agriculture Health Giles Tremlett Helen Pidd guardian.co.uk

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