Deliberate act cannot be ruled out for Germany?s 2011 E. coli O104:H4 outbreak

[Emily]

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2016/03/deliberate-act-cannot-be-rule-out-for-germanys-2011-outbreak/

Deliberate act cannot be ruled out for Germany?s 2011 outbreak

By News Desk | March 22, 2016 Yes, the German E. coli O104:H4 was a pathogen of a high virulence that suddenly emerged, and that might point to an unnatural phenomenon. But might it have been a deliberate act? Or some kind of accident?
To be sure, the 2011 outbreak centered on Northern Germany was large, severe, and deadly. Out of the 2,987 confirmed cases not involving hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), 18 died. And out of 855 HUS cases, 35 died.
Fenugreek sprouts, probably grown from E. coli contaminated seeds imported from Egypt, were blamed in the official investigations for the unusual E. coli O104 outbreak. However, some researchers still put the 2011 outbreak in a special category. They call it an unusual epidemiological event or UEE.
?The sudden and unexplainable emerging of a fast increasing number of cases and deaths from bloody diarrhea and HUS might have been caused naturally, accidentally, or intentionally,? a Serbian-German research team writes in the European Journal of Public Health Advance Access for April 15....

[gsgs]

"cannot be ruled out" doesn't mean much. What can be ruled out outside maths anyway ?
How likely is it ? There are no hints for a deliberate release and what would have been the motivation ?
And why use sprouts and this import company instead of placing it directly - it won't make sense to me.

here the direct link : http://eurpub.oxfordjournals.org/con...1/125.full.pdf



Escherichia coli O104:H4 outbreak in
Germany?clarification of the origin of the epidemic
Vladan Radosavljevic , Ernst-Juergen Finke , Goran Belojevic

published on 15 April 2014


> Results: The analysis of the unusual GHUSEC outbreak shows that
> the present official assumption of its natural origin is questionable and pointed out
> to a probability that the pathogen could have also been introduced accidentally or
> intentionally in the food chain.

they do not consider the genomic similarities to existing strains
How would you create such a strain in a lab and why ?

the research was funded by Serbia

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cited by 5:
Genomic interplay in bacterial communities: implications for growth promoting practices
in animal husbandry
PR Chowdhury, J McKinnon, E Wyrsch? - Low-dose antibiotics: ?, 2007 - books.google.com

The ins and outs of RND efflux pumps in Escherichia coli
J Anes, MP McCusker, S Fanning? - Frontiers in ?, 2015 - ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Biodefense System-Communicable Diseases and Public Health
V Radosavljevic - J Bioterror Biodef, 2016 - omicsonline.org

Le v?hicule de d?tection, d'identification et de pr?l?vement des Services
D?partementaux d'Incendie et de Secours?: nouvelle r?ponse face ? la menace ?
C Avanzi - 2014 - hal.inria.fr

2015 - cqvip.com [Chinese ?]

[gsgs]

2013 article in German's weekly magazine "Spiegel"

http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/ser...-a-923249.html
196 comments


has the government lied to the public ? According to foodwatch only 10% of cases originated
in the presented source
http://www.foodwatch.org/uploads/med...nalyse_ger.pdf
[foodwatch link dead]
http://www.foodwatch.org/de/informie...ec-getaeuscht/

In similar outbreaks it was equally difficult to find the source. Only 10% could be traced,
the other 90% are unclear, not refused as coming from the same source, as suggested
in the headlines.

There was no list of (tracking) all 3842 cases, as the EHEC-task-force had said.
They had a primary list of 350 cases and later an additional 500 cases.
The lists were not public and only presented to foodwatch in 2012 on request.

================================================

http://www.abendblatt.de/ratgeber/wi...h-zurueck.html
[bad page, crashes my browser, presumably due to ads]



Berlin. Das Robert-Koch-Institut (RKI) in Berlin hat Vorw?rfe der Verbraucherschutzorganisation
Foodwatch ?ber Vers?umnisse bei der Aufkl?rung der Ehec-Krise 2011 zur?ckgewiesen.
Damals waren von Mai bis Juli fast 3000 Menschen durch eine Variante des
Lebensmittelkeims Ehec erkrankt, 53 starben. Es sei absolut normal, dass bei
Lebensmittelinfektionen nur ein Teil der Patienten vom RKI befragt werden k?nne,
sagte Sprecherin Susanne Glasmacher am Freitag.

Foodwatch hatte der Bundesregierung am Freitag unter anderem vorgeworfen, h?chstens 500
der mehr als 3800 Krankheitsf?lle aufgekl?rt zu haben. Als Ausl?ser der Epidemie 2011 waren
Sprossen ausgemacht worden. Als sehr wahrscheinlich gilt, dass der Erreger von verunreinigten Bockshornkleesamen aus ?gypten stammte. Dass er damals weder in solchen Samen noch
in daraus hergestellten Sprossen nachzuweisen war, ist lange bekannt.


((dpa))

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Interview Glasmacher (Pressesprecherin RKI) zu EHEC : [apparently from mid 2011]
http://www.wpk.org/quarterly/einzela...o-oder-so.html


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RKI report in 2013 , German with English summary :
http://edoc.rki.de/oa/articles/redT9...buKpvigReA.pdf

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RKI Abschlussbericht, Sept.2011:

https://www.rki.de/DE/Content/InfAZ/...ublicationFile

https://www.rki.de/DE/Content/InfAZ/E/EHEC/EHEC_O104/EHEC-Abschlussbericht.pdf