Sunday

German hospitals overwhelmed with E.coli outbreak


Hospitals in northern Germany are being overwhelmed as they struggle to provide enough beds and medical care for patients stricken by an outbreak of E. coli, the German health minister admitted Sunday.


"The situation in the hospitals is intense," minister Daniel Bahr told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper, adding that clinics outside of Hamburg and northern Germany _ the epicenter of the E.coli outbreak _ should start taking in ill persons from the north.
Bahr announced he would visit the University Medical Center in Hamburg-Eppendorf later Sunday to see the situation firsthand and talk to physicians and nurses who have been working overtime and double-shifts for weeks in a row.
Hamburg is the epicenter of the deadliest E. coli outbreak in modern history, which has killed at least 18 people since May 2. More than 1,700 people in Germany have been infected, including 520 suffering from a life-threatening complication that can cause kidney failure. Ten other European nations and the U.S. have reported 90 other cases, all but two related to visits in northern Germany.
One E. coli survivor, 41-year-old Nicoletta Pabst, told The Associated Press that sanitary conditions at the Hamburg-Eppendorf hospital were horrendous when she arrived with cramps and bloody diarrhea. She said at least 20 others had a similar condition in the emergency room.
"All of us had diarrhea and there was only one bathroom each for men and women _ it was a complete mess," she said. "If I hadn't been sick with E. coli by then, I probably would have picked it up over there."
After waiting three hours to be seen, Pabst was told to go home because her blood levels did not indicate that she had kidney failure. She had to return by ambulance the next morning and was hospitalized for a week at a different hospital.
While suspicion has fallen on raw tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce as the source of the bacterial outbreak, researchers have been unable to pinpoint exactly where or what food was responsible.
Researchers from Germany's national disease control center have inspected a restaurant in the northern city of Luebeck where 17 people were reported to have fallen ill with E. coli last month. Health experts were also investigating whether the disease spread at a festival in Hamburg that was visited by 1.5 million people.
Critics have questioned the slow pace of the investigation. The medical director of Berlin's Charite Hospitals, Ulrich Frei, said it made him "anxious" that a month after the outbreak there was still no clue as to what caused it and said experts "should have interviewed the patients right away."
Fear of the aggressive E.coli outbreak also spread to countries outside Europe.
The Gulf nation of Qatar on Sunday temporarily banned imports of fresh cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce from Spain and Germany because of concerns and insisted all other fresh fruit and vegetable shipments from Europe carry a health certificate declaring they are free of the E. coli bacteria.
The United Arab Emirates has banned cucumber imports from Spain, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands, while Lebanon has banned all vegetables from the 27-nation European Union.
Russia has also banned vegetables from the entire EU to keep the outbreak from spreading east, a move the EU called disproportionate and Italian farmers denounced as "absurd." No E. coli infections have been reported in Russia.

(RELATED)
E. coli outbreak blamed on German veggie sprouts

The terrifying E. coli outbreak in Europe appears to have been caused by vegetable sprouts grown on an organic farm in Germany, an agriculture official Sunday as the toll climbed to at least 22 dead and more than 2,200 sickened.
Preliminary tests found that bean sprouts and other sprout varieties from the farm in the Uelzen area, between the northern cities of Hamburg and Hannover, could be traced to infections in five German states, Lower Saxony Agriculture Minister Gert Lindemann said.

"There were more and more indications in the last few hours that put the focus on this farm," Lindemann said.
Many restaurants involved in what is now the deadliest known E. coli outbreak in modern history had received deliveries of the sprouts, which are often used in salads, Lindemann spokesman Gert Hahne told The Associated Press.
Definitive test results should be available Monday, Lindemann said.
In recent days, as health officials tried to pinpoint the source of the unusually lethal outbreak, suspicion fell on lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes, perhaps from Spain. Spanish farmers complained that the accusations were having a devastating financial effect.
"First it's the `evil' Spaniards, and then you hear, very surprised, that it is our neighbor," said Dietrich Benni, who lives near the German farm. "It's a bit scary all of this, especially that it is coming from an organic place."
He added: "No more organic food for me for now."
The farm was shut down Sunday and all its produce recalled, including fresh herbs, fruits, flowers and potatoes. Two of its employees were also infected with E. coli, Lindemann said. He said 18 different sprout mixtures from the farm were under suspicion, including sprouts of mung beans, broccoli, peas, chickpeas, garlic lentils and radishes.
As for how the sprouts became contaminated, Lindemann noted that they are grown with steam in barrels at 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit) _ an ideal environment for bacteria to multiply.
He said it is possible that the water was contaminated with E. coli or that the sprout seeds _ purchased in Germany and other countries _ contained the germ. He said the farmers had not used any manure, which is commonly spread on organic farms and has been known to cause E. coli outbreaks.
Lindemann urged Germans not to eat sprouts until further notice. He said authorities could not yet rule out other possible sources and warned Germans to continue avoiding tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce for now.
AP journalists went to the farm on Sunday night, but nobody was available to talk. Telephone messages left at the farm's office were also immediately returned.
The outbreak has been blamed on a highly aggressive, "super-toxic" strain of E. coli, perhaps one that scientists have never seen before.
E. coli can be found in the feces of humans and livestock and can spread to produce through sloppy bathroom habits among farmworkers and through animal waste in fields and in irrigation water. Organic farms tend to use more manure than other producers do.
Sprouts have been implicated in previous E. coli outbreaks, particularly one in 1996 in Japan, where tainted radish sprouts killed 12 people and reportedly sickened more than 12,000 others.
The head of Germany's national disease control center raised the death toll to 22 Sunday _ 21 in Germany and one in Sweden _ and said an additional 2,153 people in Germany have been sickened. That figure included 627 people who have developed a rare, serious complication of the disease that can cause kidney failure. Ten other European nations and the U.S. have reported a total of 90 other victims.
Earlier Sunday, Germany's health minister fiercely defended his country's handling of the crisis as he toured a hospital in Hamburg, the epicenter of the emergency.
The comments by Health Minister Daniel Bahr reflected a sharp shift in his public response to the crisis and came after AP journalists reported on emergency room chaos and unsanitary conditions at the same hospital, the University Medical Center in Hamburg-Eppendorf.
On Saturday, Bahr admitted that hospitals in northern Germany were overwhelmed and struggling to provide beds and medical care for victims of the outbreak, and he suggested that other German regions start taking in sick patients from the north.
But after one E. coli survivor told the AP that conditions at the Hamburg hospital were horrendous when she arrived with cramps and bloody diarrhea, Bahr announced a visit and told reporters that German medical workers and northern state governments were doing "everything necessary" to help victims.
Nicoletta Pabst, 41, told the AP that sanitary conditions at the Hamburg-Eppendorf hospital were shocking and its emergency room was overflowing with ailing people when she arrived May 25.
"All of us had diarrhea and there was only one bathroom each for men and women _ it was a complete mess," she said Saturday. "If I hadn't been sick with E. coli by then, I probably would have picked it up over there."
Doctors and nurses in northern Germany have been working overtime for weeks since the crisis began May 2.

Mathew 24:7-  For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. 

2 Esdras 15:5 Behold, saith the Lord, I will bring plagues upon the world; the sword, famine, death, and destruction.

2 Esdras 15:49 I will send plagues upon thee; widowhood, poverty, famine, sword, and pestilence, to waste thy houses with destruction and death.

Jer 28:8- The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence.

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