E Coli Outbreak in Germany

[MIREGMGR]

Of course, if you continue to consume only cooked food, you continue to not be dependent on the validity of the questionable cause-analyses.

 

[MIREGMGR]

Does pickling assuredly kill the dangerous strain of E. Coli?

 

[Barbara B]

Does pickling assuredly kill the dangerous strain of E. Coli?

Don't know. Chlorine is killing EHEC, so it has to be added to the water for sprouts in Japan since the E. coli outbreak in 1996. No further E. coli infection was assigned to sprouts since then.

No one in Germany proposed pickling as a protective measure in the current outbreak, but pickling doesn't seem to be really delicious for salad, does it? It could be a way to treat tomatos and cucumbers, but wasn't mentioned by the authorities.

On 4 p.m. there was an update issued by the Robert Koch institute: They found a package with sprouts in a waste container (produced by the company under suspicion), which was contaminated with the E. coli hybrid. Two out of three members from this family were hospitalized previously - the third one didn't eat the sprouts. So this was another indication that the sprouts are one source of the outbreak (but did not exclude other sources).

Regards,

Barbara

 

[AnaMariaVR2]

E. coli map: How the outbreak look

[BBC] E. coli map: How the outbreak looks

 

[AnaMariaVR2]

MIREGMGR
Of course, if you continue to consume only cooked food, you continue to not be dependent on the validity of the questionable cause-analyses.

So, do we put in isolation a controlled group of volunteer patients, make them sign consent forms, have a rock-star team of physicians, nurses & medical facility fully resourced in alert mode monitoring them, and run a short trial by feeding them uncooked suspected food items?

I would design that experiment to get to the root of the problem, but it is not going to happen.
Who is going to volunteer for this short clinical trial?
Any show of hands?

 

[AnaMariaVR2]

How E. coli attacks the body [infographic]

Unleashed Agressor: How the E. coli serotype O104:H4 attacks the body - DEAD - 404 - LINK UNLINKED

 

[Ka Pilo]

What's the purpose of the late root cause analysis?

E.Coli outbreak in Germany is something that could have bee foreseen.
The culprit should be held legally responsible for his/her action. So the question is, should Germany’s government punish the culprit or make some efforts to improve the system to prevent the similar occurrence in the future? Or both?

 

[The Specialist]

Ka Pilo,

How could it have been foreseen, when there is a struggle to truly understand the root-cause?


My understanding was that E-coli came from faeces. But the German farm in question doesn't use animal 'waste' or fertilisers


Have I missed something?!!

 

[Barbara B]

What's the purpose of the late root cause analysis?

E.Coli outbreak in Germany is something that could have bee foreseen.
The culprit should be held legally responsible for his/her action. So the question is, should Germany’s government punish the culprit or make some efforts to improve the system to prevent the similar occurrence in the future? Or both?

They haven't found the source yet, so at this point there's no one to blame. Two possible root causes are discussed lately:

1. Employees could have contaminated the sprouts from the company near Uelzen (city in northern Germany). Three employees were hospitalized and positively tested for O104:H4, but other employees (who also eat sprouts regularly, but from different types of seeds) weren't ill or carriere of O104:H4.
   • Employees could be infected by the sprouts they ate.
   • One or more employees could have been infected by other sources and carried the bacteria into the company, to other employees and into the production of sprouts.
2. The seeds could have been contaminated before being delivered to the company.

As some people were infected without eating sprouts from the company near Uelzen, but self-made sprouts, the seeds were tested. Until today no contaminated seeds could be found (could be a matter of the testing procedure, see below).

It is easy to test for E. coli and EHEC, but to verifiy the exact bacteria which caused the HUS-epidemic (O104:H4, mainly a hybrid of Enterohemorrhagic E. coli and Enteroaggregative E. coli), the existence of specific DNA-pieces have to be proofed. This could only be done by polymerase chain reaction (see PCR) and will take about a week.

The RKI (Robert Koch institute) announced that the number of newly hospitalized patients is decreasing rapidly, so we all hope that whatever the source was, it was inactivated and can't cause new infections any more.

Regards,

Barbara

 

[Ka Pilo]

How could it have been foreseen, when there is a struggle to truly understand the root-cause?


My understanding was that E-coli came from faeces. But the German farm in question doesn't use animal 'waste' or fertilisers


Have I missed something?!!

IMO, it can be foreseen. It depends on your Food Safety program. Your GMP and HACCP programs must be robust especially microbiological sampling, traceability procedure, corrective action etc. You have to take planned steps which correct the product under question and also rectify the operation so that you get safe food then on-wards. Corrective Action in the context of ISO 9001 is different from Corrective Action in the context of ISO 22000.