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June 6, 2011

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E. coli outbreak blamed on German beansprouts

German agricultural authorities yesterday identified locally grown beansprouts as the likely cause of an E. coli outbreak that has killed 22 people and sickened hundreds in Europe.

The Lower Saxony agriculture ministry sent out an alert yesterday warning people to stop eating the sprouts, which are often used in mixed salads, ministry spokesman Gert Hahne said.

"Beansprouts have been identified as the product that likely caused the outbreak," Hahne said. "Many restaurants that suffered from an E. coli outbreak had those sprouts delivered."

Hahne said the sprouts were grown on a farm in Lower Saxony in northern Germany. But official test results have not yet conclusively shown that the Lower Saxony-grown sprouts were to blame.

He also said authorities would still keep their warning against eating tomatoes, cucumbers or lettuce in place for now. The crisis is the deadliest E. coli outbreak in modern history.

The head of Germany's national disease control center raised the death toll to 22 yesterday - 21 people in Germany and one in Sweden - and said another 2,153 people in Germany have been sickened. That figure includes 627 people who have developed a rare, serious complication that can cause kidney failure.

The World Health Organization said 10 other European nations and the US have reported a total of 90 other victims.

Earlier yesterday, Germany's health minister fiercely defended his country's handling of the deadly E. coli outbreak as he toured a hospital in Hamburg, the epicenter of the crisis.

The comments by Health Minister Daniel Bahr seemed to reflect a sharp U-turn in his public response to the crisis and came after journalists reported on the chaos and unsanitary conditions in the emergency room of the same hospital, the University Medical Center in Hamburg-Eppendorf.

Bahr told reporters that, despite capacity problems at some hospitals, German medical workers and northern state governments were doing "everything necessary" to help E. coli victims.

 

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