The Robert Koch Institute said that there are now 1,733
people in Germany — the epicenter of the outbreak — who have been sickened,
including 520 suffering from a life-threatening complication that can cause
kidney failure.
The World Health Organization said that as of May 31, nine
other European nations have reported a total of 80 people sick from the
bacteria, most of whom had recently visited northern Germany.
While suspicion has fallen on raw tomatoes, cucumbers and
lettuce as the source of the germ, researchers have been unable to pinpoint the
food responsible.
The outbreak is considered the third-largest involving E.
coli in recent world history, and it is already the deadliest. Twelve people
died in a 1996 Japanese outbreak that reportedly sickened more than 9,000, and
seven died in a Canadian outbreak in 2000.
Kidney specialist Dr. Reinhard Brunkhorst, the president of
the German Nephrology Society, told reporters in Hamburg that hospitals are now
seeing fewer new infections reported each day, though cautioned that “it may be
less, but it’s not over yet.” “There is no reason for hysteria, because it’s
not spreading and it’s not increasing — it’s decreasing,” he said.
Researcher Dag Harmsen at the Muenster University Hospital,
which has been closely involved in the investigation of the outbreak, said that
scientists were hoping to know enough about the E. coli strain by next week to
be able to prevent new infections and better treat patients.
The WHO recommends that to avoid food-borne illnesses,
people wash their hands, keep raw meat separate from other foods, thoroughly
cook their food, and wash fruits and vegetables, especially if eaten raw.
Experts also recommend peeling raw fruits and vegetables if possible.
As the number of consumers avoiding vegetables grows,
European farmers say they are losing millions of euros every day.
Russia on Thursday extended a ban on vegetables from Spain
and Germany to the entire European Union to try to stop the outbreak spreading
east, a move the EU quickly called disproportionate and Italy’s farmers
denounced as “absurd.” No deaths or infections have been reported in Russia.
Meanwhile, Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed with Spanish
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in a telephone conversation late
Thursday to push for EU help for affected farmers, Merkel’s spokesman said.
Merkel, however, also defended the decision of state
officials in Hamburg to announce their suspicions that Spanish cucumbers were
the possible source of the outbreak.
The warning was given after three cucumbers from Spain
tested positive for E. coli, but further tests then revealed that it was a
different strain to the one that has sickened so many people in the northern
port city and elsewhere.
“The chancellor indicated great understanding for the urgent
economic situation in the Spanish produce sector,” spokesman Steffen Seibert
said.
“At the same time she noted the responsibility of the German
agencies to keep citizens informed in all phases and to report test results to
the European early warning system.” In the southern Spanish tourist resort town
of Torremolinos, Spaniards handed out some 7 tons of cucumbers free to the
public in a show of support for the farmers affected by the outbreak who have
seen their market collapse.
