Post date: Jun 01, 2011 2:7:55 PM
Scientists are still looking for the source of a killer bacteria after 15 people died in Germany and one in Sweden from a serious complication resulting from E. coli infection that affects the blood and kidneys.
DARMSTADT, GERMANY (JUNE 01, 2011) REUTERS - After the Germany reported 365 new E. coli cases on Wednesday (June 01), scientists are racing to trace the source of the deadly outbreak.
Experts at a laboratory in Darmstadt, near Frankfurt were trying to decipher DNA from the E.coli, saying they were assisting work at Muenster university.
A day earlier, German university researchers developed a rapid test for the E.Coli illness which has killed
15 people in Germany and one in Sweden.
"We offered to Muenster university to assist in the sequencing process because we knew that they own one of these machines," said Karsten Wilking, manager of biotech company "Life Technologies."
"With our experts, the latest chip generation which is not yet commercially available and our laboratory we give them the opportunity to get to those data records more quickly," Wilking said.
In Hamburg, health officials who first rang alarm bells and removed cucumbers from the food chain, defended their action.
"We never said that this (Spanish) cucumber contained exactly the germs which leads to the current outbreaks," said Friedrich Liebig who heads the city's department for food safety at the state health ministry.
"We removed these cucumbers from the market, just as we remove any food which contains germs. Let's get this straight: this food contains germs which make people ill and that's why it has to be removed from shelves," Liebig said.
Spain said it was mulling legal action against authorities in Hamburg for blaming its produce for the E. coli outbreak.