Severe E. coli infection has caused the death of one elderly male adult in Arizona and five cases of hospitalization in the USA, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The man who died had recently been to Germany, which has been ravaged by the deadly food poisoning outbreak.
Authorities have not released the dead man’s name, but say he is over 65 years old and comes from Northern Arizona.
The CDC has confirmed that so far there have been six cases of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli 10104:H4, five of whom had recently travelled to Germany. Experts believe the sixth person became ill after close contact with one of the other five in Michigan.
Five of the infected Americans, including the one who died, developed HUS (hemolytic uremic syndrome), a severe kidney-damaging complication.
Illnesses have been reported in North Carolina, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Arizona and Michigan.
Public health authorities in Europe believe the most likely source of the E. coli outbreak were fenugreek seeds from Egypt that were imported and then used to grow sprouts in Europe. Fifty infected people have died so far in Europe, only one of them outside Germany.
The EU (European Union) has recalled all fenugreek seeds and has also temporarily banned their importation.
In a communiqué, the CDC (USA) wrote:
“Given the possible severe health impact of exposure to a small quantity of contaminated material, and in the absence of information regarding the source and means of contamination and possible cross-contamination, all lots of fenugreek seeds from the identified exporter should be considered suspect.”
The European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention wrote that although one lot of fenugreek seeds imported from Egypt is the most probably cause of the outbreak..
“.. it cannot be excluded that other lots of fenugreek imported from Egypt during the period 2009-2011 may be implicated. The agency recommends the European Commission that all efforts should be made to prevent any further consumer exposure to the suspect seeds and that forward tracing be carried out in all countries which may have received seeds from the concerned lots.
Written by Christian Nordqvist