Germany on Monday called crisis talks amid warnings that an outbreak of a highly virulent strain of bacteria found on imported cucumbers is spreading after already killing 11 people. More than two weeks after the food poisoning outbreak was first reported in the north of the country, the number of confirmed or suspected cases has reached 1,200, according to media reports. There was no immediate official confirmation of the figure, but the Stockholm-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has described the outbreak of potentially deadly strain of E. coli as “one of the largest worldwide and the largest ever reported in Germany”. Authorities warned against eating raw vegetables after traces of the bacteria were found on organic cucumbers from Spain last week. But confusion reigned on the source of the outbreak. Enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) can result in full-blown haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), a disease that causes bloody diarrhoea and serious liver damage and which can result in death.
