A new, highly aggressive strain of the E. coli bacterium is behind the outbreak that has left 17 people dead and sickened more than 1,500 in Germany and elsewhere in Europe, the World Health Organization says.
Reuters reports that Chinese scientists, working with experts around the world to understand the illness, found that the pathogen carries genes that make it resistant to several classes of antibiotics. “This E. coli is a new strain of bacteria that is highly infectious and toxic,” said a statement from scientists at the Beijing Genomics Institute.
Amid one of the world’s worst recorded outbreaks of E. coli, Russia said it has stopped importing raw vegetables from the entire European Union. The move — which was called “disproportionate” by EU health officials and fed a continuing uproar about the possible source of the E. coli — expands an earlier ban that was limited to Spain and Germany.
“How many lives of European citizens does it take for European officials to tackle this problem?” asked Gennady Onishchenko, the head of the Russian consumer protection agency Rospotrebnadzor.
A German health official told the BBC that the source of the disease may never be known. The number of cases “will come down but how long it will take I am not sure. It could be weeks, months,” said Reinhard Burger, president of the Robert Koch Institute, which is supported by Germany’s health ministry.
The institute reported at least 365 new cases on Wednesday. One quarter of the cases involved the potentially life-threatening disease HUS, or hemolytic-uremic syndrome, a serious kidney condition that can destroy red blood cells and affect the central nervous system.
The Guardian reports that three patients in the United Kingdom, all sickened in Germany, are believed to have HUS.
At the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Denis Coulombier, head of surveillance and response, told Reuters that the large number of severe illnesses, apparently stemming from tainted vegetables, “means that probably there was a huge contamination at some junction.”
“That could have been anywhere from the farm to the fork – in transport, packaging, cleaning, at wholesalers or retailers – anywhere along that food chain,” he added.
Authorities have urged people visiting Germany to avoid eating raw tomatoes, cucumbers or leafy salad, especially in the north of the country. People with symptoms such as bloody diarrhea are being told to seek urgent medical attention.
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