German E. coli Outbreak Kills 16
The German E. coli outbreak that has killed 16 people and caused nearly 400 cases of HUS, or hemolytic uremic syndrome, involves a stain of the pathogen that has not been seen in the United States.
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Robert Tauxe, a foodborne disease expert at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told The Associated Press that it is extraordinary to see so many cases of HUS from a foodborne illness outbreak. "There has not been such an outbreak before that we know of in the history of public health," Tauxe told the AP. Officials are frantically searching for a cause, but the number of new cases has dropped off.
The CDC's Tauxe said two people from the U.S. are among more than 1,150 people in total who have been sickened in the outbreak, which was initially thought to be caused by contaminated cucumbers but now is undetermined. The two U.S. victims had recently traveled to Hamburg, where the outbreak started several weeks ago.
The outbreak also has infected people in other European countries, including Denmark, France, the Czech Republic, the U.K., the Netherlands and Switzerland.
