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Intestinal infection in Europe: death toll rises
Last reviewed: 30.06.2025
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Germany has recorded its first death from a dangerous intestinal disease outside the northern regions, AFP reported on Monday, May 30. The day before, a 91-year-old woman infected with E. coli E. coli died in the city of Bad Lippstadt (North Rhine-Westphalia). According to official data as of May 30, the number of German residents who died as a result of this infection was 14 people, and almost all of the victims were women. In total, more than 1,300 cases of E. coli E. coli E. coli have been identified in Germany.
Reinhard Burger, director of the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, once again recommended that citizens, especially those living in the north of the country, refrain from eating raw vegetables. On air at the RBB radio station, he stressed that even thorough washing of vegetables does not eliminate the risk of contamination. Burger also said that he understands the complaints of farmers about the drop in demand for their products, but at the same time reminded that "protecting public health is of paramount importance."
The cure has not yet been found
Meanwhile, German doctors may have made their first advances in curing hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), one of the most common complications of EGEC infection. As reported by the dpa news agency, Professor Hermann Haller of the Hannover Medical School announced that therapy with special antibodies is working positively. It is not a "miracle cure, but it does something," Haller noted.
According to doctors, more than half of patients at the Hamburg University Hospital Eppendorf who are diagnosed with hemolytic uremic syndrome suffer from neurological symptoms. They typically include anxiety, speech problems, convulsions (including epileptic seizures). In addition, HUS can lead to a microstroke.
International implications
Microscopic image of bacteria EGEKImage title: Large view of the image with the image title: Microscopic image of bacteria EGEKMeanwhile, the Netherlands has expressed concern about the sharp reduction in the volume of Dutch vegetable deliveries to Germany, which in turn is caused by a drop in demand. Vegetable exports to Germany have "almost come to a standstill," Dutch Minister of Agriculture and Foreign Trade Henk Bleeker admitted on May 30 on the sidelines of a meeting of EU agricultural ministers in Debrecen, Hungary. The AFP agency recalls that until recently, Germany imported vegetables worth approximately 10 million euros weekly from the Netherlands.
Madrid does not rule out the possibility of filing a lawsuit against Germany for compensation for damage caused to Spanish farmers, caused by information disseminated by official German agencies that the source of EGEK could be cucumber deliveries from Spain, the dpa agency reports. The Spanish side estimated the amount of this damage at 6-8 million euros daily and believes that the contamination of vegetables could have occurred during their transportation or already in Germany during processing. Meanwhile, the dpa agency reported that in Norway, food inspection authorities found the E. coli EGEK in a small batch of Spanish cucumbers, which, however, did not have time to go on sale.
On Monday, May 30, Russia banned the import of fresh vegetables from Germany and Spain. Russia's chief state doctor Gennady Onishchenko called on the country's population to "buy domestic products," Interfax reports.
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