German hospitals overwhelmed with E coli outbreak

Monday, June 06, 2011

German hospitals overwhelmed with E coli outbreak

BERLIN: 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.

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 US 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 hospitalised for a week at a different hospital.

Investigators searching for the origin of a killer bacteria were attempting to track supplies made to a north German restaurant where 17 guests fell ill, the press reported here Sunday. The owner of the ‘Kartoffelkeller’ restaurant in the Baltic seaport of Luebeck, Joachim Berger, told ZDF public television that health inspectors had carried out tests at the premises after three separate groups of people fell ill after eating there. More than 2,000 people have been taken ill over the past month, mostly in northern Germany, and at least 19 have died after being contaminated by the virulent enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) with symptoms including stomach cramps, diarrhoea, fever and vomiting.

Health officials, cited by Berger, said a family, a group of Danish tourists, and some women tax-inspectors were among the 17 who ate at his restaurant on May 13 and who contracted EHEC. Guests who became ill appeared to have eaten steak and salad. The Bild am Sonntag newspaper said a 48-year-old woman tax-inspector later died, while eight remain ill, two of them critically.

Inspectors had thoroughly examined his kitchens and taken stool samples from all his employees, Berger said. None of the staff, who ate the same food as the guests, had been ill, he added.

Christian Seyfert, a spokesman for the consumer protection ministry in the region, told AFP that speculation about the restaurant’s link to the outbreak was unfounded.

Berger said his food supplies came from a wholesaler in Moelln who obtained them from the central food market in Hamburg, the northern port where numerous cases of EHEC have also been reported.

German Health Minister Daniel Bahr, who on Sunday was to visit Hamburg’s Eppendorf University clinic where many of the region’s EHEC patients are being treated, has warned that the source of infection could still be active.

“Food health officials are working around the clock to identify the source of the infection,” Bahr told the Ruhr Nachrichten newspaper on Saturday. “It can’t be ruled out that the source of infection is still active,” he added, pointing to the need for continued vigilance as authorities still counsel against eating raw tomatoes, lettuce and cucumbers. agencies

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011%5C06%5C06%5Cstory_6-6-2011_pg4_3