Tag Archives: Spain

German E. coli O104 update: 10 dead, 276 HUS, 1000 sick

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More women have died in Germany from an E. coli O104 outbreak linked to cucumbers grown in Spain, bringing the death toll to 10. Of the 1,000 or so sick, 276 have hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS).

Hospitals in the city of Hamburg, where more than 400 people are believed to have been infected, were said to be overwhelmed and sending patients to clinics elsewhere in the country.

Austria’s food safety agency ordered a recall of organically grown cucumbers, tomatoes and aubergines supplied by a Spanish producer which is thought to be the source of the outbreak. It said 33 Austrian stores were affected.

According to Denmark’s National Serum Institute, there are nine confirmed cases, with at least another eight people suspected of having the intestinal infection, also known as VTEC, in Denmark.

Sweden has reported 25 E. coli cases, of whom 10 developed HUS, according to the European Commission, while Britain counted three cases (two HUS).

Officials in the Czech Republic said the cucumbers may have been exported there, as well as to Austria, Hungary and Luxembourg.

"As long as the experts in Germany and Spain have not been able to name the source of the agent without any doubt, the general warning for vegetables still holds," German Agriculture and Consumer Protection Minister Ilse Aigner said on Sunday in a report in the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

The European Commission says experts are now probing two agricultural sites in southern Spain, in Almeria and Malaga, suspected of exporting products, most likely cucumbers, tainted with E. coli.

German E. coli O104 update: 7 dead, 276 HUS, 800 sick

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More women have died in Germany from an E. coli O104 outbreak linked to cucumbers grown in Spain, bringing the death toll to seven (or nine, depending on the media source). Of the 800 or so sick, 276 have hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS).

The European Commission says experts are now probing two agricultural sites in southern Spain, in Almeria and Malaga, suspected of exporting products, most likely cucumbers, tainted with E.coli.

Fear of infection has lead many in Germany to change their eating habits. A survey carried out by Emnid for Bild am Sonntag has found that 58 percent of Germans are following the advice of the Robert Koch Institute and not eating raw cucumbers, lettuce or tomatoes.

Farmers are threatening to sue German health authority the Robert Koch Institute and the Federal Consumer Ministry for damages over warnings about eating vegetables over what they say has needlessly damaged their business.
 

E. coli O104 death toll at 5, 276 with HUS, over 600 ill, Spain complains

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German public health authority Robert Koch Institute (RKI) confirmed Friday that five people have now been killed by E. coli O104 linked to organic cucumbers from Spain.

"The Andalusian authorities are investigating to find out where the contamination comes from and when it took place," said a spokesman for the Spanish food safety agency AESA on Friday.

Spanish senior official Josep Puxeu said Germany informed the press about the disease before informing the EU, as it should have done, and that Spain has stopped cucumber deliveries while stressing there is no proof that the EHEC entered Germany through Spanish cucumbers.

There has been no report of contamination within Spain, AESA said.

Meanwhile, the outbreak is spreading across northern Europe. Health officials in Denmark and Sweden reported Friday a total of 32 confirmed cases of people afflicted by the EHEC bacterium, all of whom had previously been travelling in Germany.

Denmark’s veterinary and food products agency said Friday it had found contaminated cucumbers from Spain in the stocks of two wholesalers in the west of the country and ordered them withdrawn.
 

Spanish lettuce watered with raw sewage – 2005 preview to German E. coli O104 outbreak?

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In May 2005, hundreds of people in Northern Europe became sick from lettuce grown in Spain that was watered with human sewage.

As reported by Eurosurveillance, the rare multiresistant Salmonella Typhimurium DT 104B caused an outbreak of 60 microbiologically confirmed cases in May 2005, widely distributed across southern and western Finland. The isolates had an identical pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and antimicrobial resistance pattern (ACSSuT); also, 80% of the confirmed cases were in females and 45% were in people aged between 15-24 years (range 7 to 53).

Hundreds were also sickened in the U.K. The Daily Mail was direct: “Drought-hit Spanish farmers have been using household sewage to water lettuce.”

Spain’s environment minister at the time said, "When they don’t get irrigation water they turn to other kinds of water."

Farmers from Beniel, in south-east Spain, told the El Pais newspaper, "The water we receive is not enough, so we are forced to mix it with the sewage from our own homes."

Farmers’ leaders in the Murcia region insist it would be wrong to view all Spanish produce as unsafe based on the behavior of a few growers.

Francisco Gil, a local union leader who grows peppers, said at the time, "That is like calling all Englishmen drunks just because one or two of them can’t hold their drink.”

So assuming German health types are correct and Spanish cucumbers are to blame for an E. coli O104 outbreak that has killed five and sickened over 600, it reinforces a food safety basic: know thy supplier – and know what they are doing when the auditor or inspector isn’t around, which is 99.99999 per cent of the time.

Night soil? Or ruminant soil.
 

Blame Spain: Germans finger Spanish cucumbers as source of E. coli O104 outbreak

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German health officials identified imported cucumbers from Spain Thursday as the source of a two-week E. coli O104 outbreak that has killed at least four people and made more than 100 others ill.

Three of four contaminated cucumbers analyzed by the Hamburg Institute for Hygiene and the Environment came from Spain, said the state health minister for Hamburg, Cornelia Pruefer-Storcks.

Cucumbers from the affected producers have been pulled from shelves and officials have told people to stop eating cucumbers. The country of origin of the other cucumber is not yet known.

UK operator ordered to pay damages to tourists sickened in Spain

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British tourists always seem to be getting sick on their vacations to southern locales and they always seem to be battling with tour operators.

In 2003, a bunch went to Baulo Hotel in Majorca and contracted either salmonella from poorly prepared food or cryptosporidium from the swimming pool.

In 2006, the claimants initiated legal action.

Today a judge ruled that one of the UK’s largest tour operators should have warned holidaymakers about an outbreak of illness at a Spanish resort.

The judge said that Thomson, which is now part of the larger European Tui group, was liable for damages.

In what may have wider implications for the travel industry, the judge also ruled that Thomson ought to have warned guests about the outbreak at the hotel before they travelled, in order to give them an opportunity to either rebook or cancel, but had failed to do so.

Thomson accepted its liability in the salmonella cases, but argued that in the cases of cryptosporidium, it could not have done more to get rid of the illness from the resort, adding,

"We are very disappointed with the decision as we sincerely believe that we did everything in our power to safeguard our customers’ wellbeing at the time."

The company said the real winners would be "the ‘no win no fee’ solicitors involved."
 

Tourists struck down with Salmonella at Spanish resort

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Yet another story about Brits trying to get some sunshine and ending up with the runs.

Alex Liddell, 64, was rushed to hospital with salmonella poisoning after he became ill while staying at a crisis-hit Spanish hotel on Tenerife’s west coast.

Mr Liddell, who also has a heart condition, was taken to the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley after visiting his doctor when he returned to Scotland.

Last night, his worried wife Sandra, a well-known community councilor, told of the dreadful conditions they had to endure at their Spanish hotel and launched a stinging attack on tour operators Thomson.

“I had contacted Thomson the day before we travelled to Spain because Id noticed on the Internet that there had been problems at the hotel where we were staying.

Alex has a heart condition and has had a valve replacement operation, so I didnt want him to be at risk of picking up a bug.

But I was told that Thomson weren’t aware of problems at the hotel.

However, both of us fell ill while we were there.

The food was sloppy and there was even a microwave with a sign on it which said that you could use it to heat your food up if it wasn’t hot enough.”

The Paisley Daily Express said the pair were among dozens of British tourists who were struck down by gastric problems after staying at the Hotel Los Gigantes in the Acantilado de los Gigantes resort on Tenerifes west coast.

A top law firm has now been appointed by some of the hotel guests, who aim to collectively sue Thomson for compensation in the region of £1million.
 

UK moms stricken with E. coli O157 after Benidorm holiday

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Mum-of-two Nina McLaren and her best friend Jodie Davies, both from Flint, became seriously ill after spending four days in the Spanish  resort of Benidorm last month.

In total, 14 holidaymakers contracted E.coli O157 after  stays in Benidorm during November.

Now travel lawyers at Irwin Mitchell, along with the Health Protection Agency, have launched an investigation into the source of the bacteria.

27-year-old Jodie told the Daily Post:

“The whole ordeal has been so distressing and painful that I really do wish we had never gone on holiday at all, it feels like we haven’t had one.  … To learn that there were so many other people that fell ill with the same thing is a real worry. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone so it’s a relief to hear that there is an investigation into where the source was.”
 

Spanish eggs eyed as possible source of UK Salmonella outbreaks; 2 dead, 5 hospitalized, hundreds sick in 14 outbreak clusters since August

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U.K. health types are investigating two deaths linked to a surge in cases of Salmonella Enteritidis phage type (PT) 14b since mid-August.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) said a total of 14 clusters in England and Wales have been linked to a number of different catering establishments and one care home.

To date, 443 cases have been reported to the Health Protection Agency this year, compared with 137 in 2008.

It is understood two deaths of people at the care home in Sunderland have been linked to salmonella poisoning.

An FSA spokesman said,

"Although there is no conclusive evidence yet, the clusters may be linked to eggs sourced from outside the UK and used in these establishments. Investigations are ongoing into a possible link to eggs sourced from an approved establishment in Spain, and the UK and Spanish authorities are working in close cooperation to investigate this."

Seven of the recent outbreaks – or clusters – are linked to Chinese or Thai restaurants, three to cafes, one to an Italian restaurant, one to a kebab shop and one to a roadside van.
 

Recent food poisoning to blame for Leonard Cohen collapse on stage in Spain

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One of my favorite Kids in the Hall lines – they were a comedy troupe from Toronto – and one I use often is that the music of Leonard Cohen is the soundtrack for hell (or something like that).

But I wouldn’t wish food poisoning on anyone.

BBC News reports the 74-year-old singer is recovering after collapsing on stage during a concert in Valencia, Spain.

Cohen was taken to hospital as a precaution. He has been discharged and is said to have had food poisoning.

A band member told the crowd Cohen had suffered stomach cramps and vomiting fits.