Another 100 sick people have joined a major E. coli outbreak in Germany as authorities continue to struggle to find the source.
The E. coli O45 outbreak, which has affected more than 350 people, has been ongoing since mid-August.
The focus is on northern and western Germany. Mostly children under 10 years of age are affected, some of them develop hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS). HUS is a clinical syndrome associated with E. coli that can lead to kidney failure, brain damage, and death.
The outbreak included a total of 183 confirmed cases and 48 people developed HUS. There are also eight probable and 160 probable cases that could be part of the outbreak. This means 351 cases could be linked to the outbreak.
The previous total was 255 cases with 137 confirmed infections and 38 cases of HUS.
Two confirmed cases have died: a patient aged 5 to 10 years with HUS and a woman aged 70 to 80 years infected with E. coli. One probable case: A patient over 90 years of age with HUS also died.
The average age of confirmed cases is 4 years, with an age range from 1 year to 94 years. All cases of HUS occur in children.
Various affected areas
The state with the highest number of confirmed cases is Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. In the first few weeks, affected people almost exclusively traveled to the region in the days before the onset of illness, either on holiday or as residents. However, there are now cases in North Rhine-Westphalia and other regions, where seven of the 16 states have been affected.
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) received information through EU networks about four travel-related outbreaks. A woman from the United States was in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern before she became ill, a child from the Netherlands was shopping for groceries in Germany, a child living in Germany became ill in Italy, and a child from Luxembourg became ill without any signs of infection in Germany.
The current incident is the largest since the 2011 E. coli O104 outbreak, which was linked to the consumption of fenugreek sprouts. The final number of cases was 4075, including 908 cases of HUS and 50 deaths in 16 countries.
The RKI said the investigation into the causes and sources of infection in the current outbreak is ongoing. This includes interviews with patients and their parents, a case-control study, and analysis of purchase receipts. No food product has been identified so far.
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