Exhibit A.
This image and others caught up in a German restaurant helped to determine the source of the epidemic.
RKI
BERLIN- take pictures of your restaurant meal can be a strange habit but if it helps to save lives? Today, the German authorities announced that they are now certain that organic germs * are the source of the outbreak of enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) in their country and guests who took their cameras before digging in proved to be a big help.
Early epidemiological studies have shown that EHEC infected women were much more likely to have eaten raw tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce before their disease than women who remained healthy, and May 25 the federal Institute risk assessment (BfR) issued a recommendation to avoid these products. But more recent studies of infected groups showed that many patients had eaten in restaurants and cafeterias that had a connection to an organic germination battery in Bienenbüttel, a village in Lower Saxony. The farm has been closed as a precaution and BfR has expanded its choux recommendation.
Today, researchers at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the German center for the prevention and control of diseases, confirmed the suspicion in what they call a "study cohort restaurant based on the recipe. "" the problem is that many people do not remember exactly what was in the food they had for lunch or dinner there are days, "says Gérard Krause, director of epidemiology infectious to RKI. To remedy this problem, the researchers identified five tour groups who ate in a restaurant in northern Germany. There were victims EHEC in five groups; in total, 19 of the 112 guests had become infected. (The restaurant's name was kept secret.)
Tuesday and Wednesday, the research teams swarmed to interview members of the groups. Using the control lists, invoices and photos, they were able to determine for most customers that items on the menu they had chosen. At the same time, three researchers went to the kitchen to find out exactly how the food was prepared and what ingredients went into each dish. "Only by addressing memory lapses guests with detailed knowledge of capitals could know exactly what each client had consumed," said RKI President Reinhard Burger. "These photos really helped us."
The researchers returned to Berlin on Wednesday evening and began to enter the data into their computers. Statistical analysis, ready at 6:00 Thursday morning, found that people who ate sprouts were 8.6 times more likely to have been infected with EHEC than with meals without germs. All 19 guests fell ill had eaten sprouts.
Based on this evidence and because a total of 26 clusters of EHEC has been traced to the farm of germination in Bienenbüttel-BfR officially exonerated the other vegetables at a press conference today. Households and restaurants were asked to destroy germs that they had in stock, and any foods that might have come into contact with them.
hours after the press conference, the Minister of Agriculture and Consumer Protection of North Rhine-Westphalia announced that EHEC bacteria with the specific serotype causing the outbreak, called O104, has was first found on sprouts from the organic farm in Bienenbüttel well. The sample came from an opened package in the garbage of a family in North Rhine-Westphalia, so it can not be completely ruled out that the seeds were infected only after they were thrown, but there is a another important piece of evidence. Two people in the household had become infected with EHEC.
Also today, EHEC researcher Helge Karch of the University of Münster confirmed suspicions that the current epidemic strain probably comes from humans. EHEC bacteria have a natural reservoir in ruminants such as cows and sheep, which carry the pathogen in their intestines and spread them with their droppings. But the analysis of the genome of the German strain suggests that it is actually a member of a different class, less aggressive microbes called enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (ECAA), which turned dangerous when he acquired toxin called Shiga usually found in the EHEC bacteria.
"The pathogen that is now spreading was found in humans so far," Karch was quoted as saying in a press release. This makes it more likely that this epidemic also originated in a person who may have brought the microbe without symptoms-that in a farm animal, Karch believes.
While the number of new infections is now in decline, heated political debate born in Germany if federal institutions involved in disease control and prevention should have more powers the responsibility for food safety and health now rests with 16 Bundeslaender the country or state;. by RKI law and BfR can not offer help when asked. many scientists consider the installation as ineffective. in the current outbreak, for example, communication with the public was sometimes chaotic, with simultaneous press conferences announcing different recommendations.
"Viruses and bacteria do not care [states'] borders," said Georg Peters, a microbiologist at the University of Münster. "It would make little sense to create an institution that is in charge of this type situation "at the federal level. disease experts called for such an institution for years, but until now, states have resisted giving up their power. "We've had SARS, bird flu, swine flu, now EHEC," Peters said. "Something has to happen at last."
* This article and its title was changed to reflect the fact that soybeans are not specifically involved. Sprouts were in general.
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