HAMBURG, Germany — Initial tests have confirmed that bean sprouts grown in northern Germany are the likely cause of an E. coli outbreak that has killed at least 22 people and sickened over 2,200, an agriculture official said Sunday.
Different kinds of sprouts from one organic farm in th
e greater Uelzen area, between the northern cities of Hamburg and Hannover, could be traced to infected persons in five different German states, Lower Saxony Agriculture Minister Gert Lindemann told reporters.
“There were more and more indications in the last few hours that put the focus on this farm,” Lindemann said at a press conference in Hannover.
“Many restaurants that suffered from an E. coli outbreak had those sprouts delivered,” his spokesman, Gert Hahne, told The Associated Press.
The farm was shut down Sunday and all of its produce — including fresh herbs, fruits, flowers and potatoes— was recalled. At least one of the farm’s employees was also infected with the E.coli bacteria, the minister said.
Lindemann said 18 different sprout mixtures were under suspicion — including sprouts of beans, broccoli, peas, chickpeas, garlic lentils, mungo beans and radish. The sprouts are often used in mixed salads.
Lindemann urged Germans to not eat sprouts until further notice and said definitive test results would be available Monday. He said authorities could not yet rule out other possible sources for the outbreak and urged Germans to continue avoiding tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce until further notice.
No one answered the phone at the farm linked to the outbreak on Sunday night.
The crisis is the deadliest E. coli outbreak in modern history.
The head of Germany’s national disease control center raised the death toll to 22 people Sunday — 21 in Germany and one in Sweden — and said another 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.
The World Health Organization said 10 other European nations and the U.S. have reported a total of 90 other victims.
Earlier in the day, Germany’s health minister fiercely defended his country’s handling of a deadly E. coli outbreak as he toured a hospital in Hamburg, the epicenter of the crisis.
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 the chaos and unsanitary conditions at the emergency room of the same hospital, the University Medical Center in Hamburg-Eppendorf.
Prior to his visit, Bahr admitted that hospitals in northern Germany were overwhelmed and struggling to provide enough beds and medical care for patients stricken by the bacterial outbreak, and suggested that other German regions start taking in sick patients from the north.
But while touring the hospital in safety gear, Bahr said medical workers and state governments in the north were doing “everything necessary” to help E. coli victims.
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