BERLIN — Cucumbers were once more under the spotlight Wednesday in Germany’s hunt for a pathogen that has killed 26 people, with investigators discovering the mutant bacteria on food scraps in a family’s rubbish.
It was the first time the type O104 enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli, or EHEC, had been confirmed on any food since the outbreak began in mid-May. All the other evidence has come from fecal tests.
The scraps turned up in a rubbish bin in the eastern German city of Magdeburg, authorities of the state of Saxony-Anhalt said.
But they cautioned that the bacteria might have been put on the food by an ill person, not vice versa.
Three members of the family have been sick: The father had only an upset stomach, the mother has been discharged after a hospital stay for diarrhea, and the adult daughter is suffering from hemolytic-uraemic syndrome, HUS, a condition caused by EHEC in which the kidneys fail.
As German media headlines accused the authorities of conducting a “chaotic” hunt for the source of the germ, the European Union’s top health official, John Dalli, defended Berlin, saying scientists and food- safety experts were doing everything they could.
Over about three weeks, 1,959 confirmed cases of O104 EHEC infection have occurred in Germany, Health Minister Daniel Bahr said.
All but one of the 26 deaths have been in Germany.
