German officials produced the first bacteriologic evidence of enterohemorrhagic Escherchia coli contamination in bean sprouts over the weekend, adding weight to their epidemiologic findings pointing to one grower in Lower Saxony as the outbreak’s source.
Raw sprouts taken from a household in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia were found to be contaminated with the shiga toxin–producing EHEC strain O104:H4, Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment announced in a statement June 11.
The package, from the same farm in Lower Saxony that investigators suspect is the source of the outbreak, had already been opened when it was tested and members of the household were by then already ill, investigators acknowledged, making the discovery less than a smoking gun. Though there were reports of the strain being identified at the suspect farm itself, these reports had not been confirmed by German health authorities as of June 13.
On June 13 the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control reported an additional 240 cases and five EHEC deaths in Germany since Friday, though the rate of newly reported infections has slowed from previous weeks.
Altogether in Europe 3,325 cases of EHEC O104:H4 infection have been identified since May, the ECDC reported, and 817 of these have developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, a severe complication that can cause kidney damage. The outbreak death count is now 36 for Europe, with all but one death occurring in Germany.
The German news magazine Der Spiegel reported June 13 that German health officials believe at least 100 Germans will require a kidney transplant or lifetime dialysis to treat permanent damage related to hemolytic uremic syndrome caused by the outbreak.