E. coli crisis prompts action

While European medical authorities struggle to determine the exact source of a mysterious outbreak of food-borne bacterial infections, Czech doctors have begun reporting their first suspected cases.

As of early June 2, more than 1,500 people in Germany had been infected by enterohaemorrhagic E. coli, a deadly strain of the bacteria. Seventeen were confirmed dead as a result of infection. In the Czech Republic, a female American tourist was confirmed as the country's first confirmed case of E. Coli since the outbreak. Two others have been hospitalized and are being tested. The tourist and at least one of the other two suspected cases admitted to having been in Germany over the past week.

"Almost all cases being reported in other countries have a link to travel or residence in Germany," said Hilde Kruse, a food safety expert for the World Health Organization (WHO).

Since the first reports of enterohaemorrhagic E. coli began surfacing in Germany the week of May 23, the Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority (SZPI) began inspecting all vegetables originating from "risk countries" such as Spain, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands, where cases of illness have been confirmed.

German authorities originally blamed the outbreak on infected cucumbers imported from Spain, sending much of Europe into a mad scramble to pull cucumbers - especially those from Spain - from store shelves. On May 30, officials admitted they had incorrectly fingered the Spanish cucumbers, and the search for the source continued.

On May 28, SZPI located 216 cucumbers imported by the Country Life chain of stores from the German supplier Dennree. Of those, all of which had arrived May 24, 183 had been put on shelves either by Country Life or by 13 other sellers supplied by Country Life. All of the stores were notified and the potentially dangerous cucumbers removed.

"[The stores] were informed and are in the process of finding out through contact with their clients if anyone got sick and how much had been sold," said SZPI spokesman Michal Spáčil. Another shipment from Germany containing 96 cucumbers arrived at Country Life May 26, but none had made it to store shelves by the time SZPI found them.

Over the next two weeks, 260 samples of fresh vegetables will be taken will be taken from shops around the country, Spáčil added.

Country Life representatives said June 1 that all of the cucumbers had been tested, and the results were negative.

"This corresponds with the information from Germany that the Spanish cucumbers were incorrectly considered the source of the dangerous infection," a Country Life press release said.

Confusion over the exact source of the cucumbers has many global health experts, including WHO, predicting the number of cases will continue to rise. That same confusion has also been the source of much back-and-forth between health and agriculture officials throughout Europe.

On May 30, EU agriculture ministers met in Hungary to assess the outbreak while the European Commission (EC) announced that same day that the Spanish cities of Almeria and Malaga had been identified by authorities as possible sources of the contamination, and German authorities are insisting the outbreak is the result of infected Spanish produce.

Authorities in Spain were furious over the accusations that they were the source.

"It's not true," Spanish Agriculture Minister Rosa Aguilar told journalists in Madrid May 30. "We need urgent action ... to stop the damage on the reputation of Spain's producers. The image of Spain is being damaged, Spanish producers are being damaged, and the Spanish government is not prepared to accept this situation."

Spain's produce exporting association, FEPEX, said the "crisis" could result in losses in the millions of euros and possibly affect sales of other agricultural products.

One of the most drastic measures taken in response to the outbreak has been in Russia, which has announced a ban on all vegetable imports from the EU.

"How many more lives of European citizens does it take for European officials to tackle this problem?" said Gennady Onishchenko, Russia's chief sanitary inspector.  

- Klára Jiřičná contributed to this report.

Jack Buehrer can be reached at
jbuehrer@praguepost.com