02 June,2011 08:50 AM IST | | AFP
A mysterious killer bacteria claimed another life as Germany hunted for its source Wednesday, while fears of tainted vegetables saw sales plummet across Europe and farmers threatened lawsuits.
An 84-year-old woman whose death was announced Wednesday brought the European toll from the outbreak to 17, all but one in Germany, and hundreds more have fallen sick. But there was still no clear word on its cause.
The outbreak started nearly a month ago, Germany's national disease centre said, although reports of infections only emerged in mid-May.
Spain threatened to file a suit on behalf of its farmers against German authorities who had announced that the virulent bacteria was borne by Spanish imported cucumbers, before later correcting their findings.
The European Commission late Wednesday lifted its warning over the Spanish cucumbers, saying tests "did not confirm the presence of the specific serotype (O104), which is responsible for the outbreak affecting humans."
"After this development, the European Commission has removed the alert notification on Spanish cucumbers from the Rapid Alert System on Food and Feed," it said in a statement.
The Spanish health ministry welcomed the move as "a very important step to restore normalcy as soon as possible to the Spanish agricultural sector".
Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said Madrid might sue the city of Hamburg, whose officials first issued the warning, for damages already estimated at more than 200 million euros ($290 million) per week.
Europe's top health official described the issue as "serious," but ruled out the need for a ban on cucumbers or for a warning against traveling to northern Germany.
"The outbreak is limited geographically to an area surrounding the city of Hamburg," said European Union health commissioner John Dalli. "It appears that the outbreak is on the decline."
Fear led many consumers throughout Europe to swear off fresh vegetables, hitting the agricultural sector hard, and not only in Spain.
The Netherlands and Germany both said they might call on the European Union to financially help their farmers.
German Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner, who is also responsible for consumer affairs, was to discuss such aid with European commissioner Dacian Ciolos on the phone later Wednesday, her ministry said.
A spokesman for the German Federation of Farmers (DBV) said vegetable producers "are losing at the very least two to three million euros per day," because "consumers everywhere are suspicious".
Scientists and health officials said they have identified the virulent E. coli bacteria responsible for the outbreak, which has mainly affected northern Germany.
"We hope that newly developed tests will allow the source of the infection to be identified," the German Institute for Safety Assessment (BfR) said.
More than 1,500 people have fallen ill to the E. coli poisoning, with cases reported in Denmark, Britain, The Netherlands, Austria, France, Spain, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic. All apparently stemmed from people who recently travelled to northern Germany.
Confirmed cases of the full-blown disease -- known as haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS) -- a condition associated with bloody diarrhoea and kidney failure, meanwhile rose to 470 on Tuesday from 373 on Monday, according to the latest figures by the national disease centre.
German officials have maintained their warning to consumers about eating raw cucumbers, tomatoes or lettuce, seen as the most likely source for the contamination, and consumer affairs' ministry spokesman Holger Eichele told reporters that the advisory issued by Hamburg had been "justified".
"Given the potential risks, quick warnings were needed independently of the strand of bacteria involved," he said.
