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European food outbreak soars; mystery deepens

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By DAVID RISING and MARIA CHENG
Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) -- The number of people hit by a massive European outbreak of foodborne bacterial infections is a third bigger than previously known and a stunningly high number of patients suffer from a potentially deadly complication than can shut down their kidneys, officials said Wednesday.
The death toll rose to 17, with German authorities reporting that an 84-year-old woman with the complication had died on Sunday.
Medical authorities appeared no closer to discovering either the source of the infection or the mystery at the heart of the outbreak: why the unusual strain of the E. coli bacteria appears to be causing so many cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome, which attacks the kidneys and can cause seizures, strokes and comas.

I hope this isn't some terrorist attack.
 
Unfortunately the Bacterial Jihad it is very possible.
 
No, it isn't. The E-coli infection currently affecting Germany is commonly known as the Burger Bug in the USA, where a certain amount of cattle feces is permitted in meat. The difference is that the association in Germany is with salad vegetables rather than beef..
 
It is terrorism, but it's not from jihadis... it's from carelessness in the food production industry.

Sanitation standards and antibiotic practices are to blame. Until we go back to a sane way of producing food, outbreaks are just going to get worse.

Why the media is acting like this is such a mystery just goes to show that the entire establishment operates as one machine to keep the public stupefied. We may not know why this particular strain of e. coli is hurting people in this particular way, but that is relegated to biomedical sciences. We KNOW where the bacteria itself came from.
 
No, it isn't. The E-coli infection currently affecting Germany is commonly known as the Burger Bug in the USA, where a certain amount of cattle feces is permitted in meat. The difference is that the association in Germany is with salad vegetables rather than beef..

Yup. Years ago, I used to love steak tartre. I stopped eating it because of the danger of bacteria in uncooked meat.
 
It is terrorism, but it's not from jihadis... it's from carelessness in the food production industry.

Stop confusing the US with Europe.. our food production industry has to work within regulation and strict standards. This type of outbreak in Europe is extremely rare, where as in the US you see such outbreaks quite regularly.
 
Stop confusing the US with Europe.. our food production industry has to work within regulation and strict standards. This type of outbreak in Europe is extremely rare, where as in the US you see such outbreaks quite regularly.

I'm not confusing anything. It's all industry production. No matter what regulations you have, stuff will go wrong because the practices are not in line with natural methods.

You may think Europe is very different from the U.S. but in that regard, it isn't. Industry needs to feed hundreds of millions of people yearly and short cuts get made despite the intentions of government policy makers. European companies want to turn a profit just as badly as any other.
 
It's not ****ing terrorism. Terrorists can't cultivate a particular bacterial strain in order to make it more deadly. They don't have the capability.

It's not biological warfare either.

It's evolution.
 
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It's not ****ing terrorism. Terrorists can't cultivate a particular bacterial strain in order to make it more deadly. They don't have the capability.

It's not biological warfare either.

It's evolution.

A few post secondary graduates, with some training in biology and bacterial culture propigation could do it with a fridge and a controlled temp incubator, which could be made with an electric blanket. Provided they had enough test subjects ( rats, mice, pigs) most would be able to generate a strong e coli bacteria. It is not airborn which limits self contamination

But as a terroristic act it sucks. It kills very few people and does not cause terror in the public. They would need the ebola virus, which would be beyond the abilities of a few college grads.
 
The food distribution system in the World is such that a food born illness can spread from Coast to Coast here in 24 hours, before it's caught and stopped.

Freshness demands are part of the cause here, along with imports from Mexico as well as water born contamination of vegetables.

Get to know a farmer and their practices if you want to be safer.
 
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