Don't shoot the cucumber

摘要

SEVEN TEEN deaths,some 1,500 con firmed or suspected cases and hun dreds of millions of euros in losses: the outbreak of E. colt infections in northern Germany is causing havoc across Europe. The culprit is an especially nasty strain of E. coli, which normally resides harmless ly in the gut. Type O104:H_4 can cause bloody diarrhoea, convulsions and, most lethally, haemolytic-uraemic syndrome, which attacks the kidneys. Nearly all the dead are women. Nobody knows why. German health authorities at first traced the infection to organic cucumbers from Spain and advised people to avoid them, along with salad and raw toma toes. Now it seems the cucumbers were innocent (though some may have been contaminated with another strain). But the vegetable warning still stands, and the economic and political damage is mounting.