No proof vegetables are behind Europe's bacteria outbreak, say scientists

reply to post by guessing


Sure. It is unusual and I wish, they would find the source. It even changes our lives a bit, being more careful with fruits and vegetables, washing our hands more often. But it is not a horror scenario as the headlines try to make us believe.

Originally posted by dragonsmusic
How dare they accuse Spanish cucumbers.

If this wasnt so horrific it'd be funny.

Ive been in work all day so im unfamiliar with the latest developments, is it all salad or just cucumber?

Originally posted by Miraj
reply to post by guessing

 

E. Coli is not a new or rare bacteria.

Where did you get that idea?

E. Coli is about as run of the mill food bacteria that you can get..

edit on 3-6-2011 by Miraj because: (no reason given)

This is a new strain of ecoli....
:-)

reply to post by Dragonfly79



How many other bacteria is of not known origin.?

Also great way for other countries to accuse another country of negligence and possibly cripple an industry in the process.

Bit like saying... all products made in china are radioactive.... what outcome would that have I wonder?

reply to post by guessing


You don't really think it is as simple as that, do you?

Spain and Germany are partners in the EU and if one economy is crippled it also hurts the other one.

They tried to find out, what people ate, before they got infected and expected some meat or milk products, but were astounded, that the common factor was cucumbers and tomatoes.
They then wondered, how this could happen and came to the conclusion it must have been the liquid manure, they used as fertilizer.
Finally it seemed, the cucumbers and tomatoes from Spain were the reason.
So they started to look for the bacteria there and had to admit: There IS a bacteria, but not the dangerous one.

Finally now they are as clueless as in the beginning and the whole process is still in progress.

The German farmers are not in a better position then others. Russia even stopped the import from all EU countries.

reply to post by Siddharta


And finally they will also have to admit that they were wrong and should have had their facts clear before announcing to the world that spanish cucumbers were the cause.

Media could have gone like this:

We have identified the strain of bacteria but unsure as to where is has come from.


NOT

We have identified the bacteria and it comes from spanish cucumbers.

Too quick to jump to a incorrect conclusion and 17/18 people have died regardless of where it originated from..

Bit of catch up work is required to clear spain at this time...

Still does not solve the big problem though... Where did it come from...????

yes EU is community, BUT, Spain is seperate country and they are upset.

reply to post by guessing


The farmers are upset and they are right.

It is difficult to say, who started that Spain theory. The Robert Koch Instituite said, we should not start to name the source, if we are not sure, and in the next moment they started to name the source. - Which is still not sure.

It is difficult to say, who said what first. It does neither matter to the Spanish farmers - nor to the Germans or farmers of other countries - what those scientists tell right now. As long, as they cannot identify the source it is only pain to everybody.
Still they have to find out, what's going on and people want answers. So why blame anybody if they tell, what they found out? They also could be silent until they know the exact answer, but people would suspect them, to hold back the truth.

It's a loser situation for them anyway. Whatever they do, people will accuse them for something. And the focus is not on those, who are guilty for the problem, but on those, who try to solve it.

That's life.

Looks like they may have linked it back to 2 restaurants.

Interesting that they could blame spanish cucumbers after this bit of info... too hasty IMOA

latest news on bacteria outbreak

reply to post by dragonsmusic


Even if they haven't found this deadly strain of EHEC on those spanish cucumbers they FOUND EHEC on them. No variant of EHEC whatsoever has to be on those cucumbers. So please tell me why we should excuse for those reports?

Maybe like 'Ok, sorry we just noticed that your cucumbers won't kill us. It's just another variant of EHEC making you ill but hey it' not killng you so please eat those cucumbers again'

reply to post by guessing


Maybe they are "too hasty" this time, too. After Focus reported that the Robert Koch Institute favours the theory, that a festival at the port of Hamburg is the source, the officials of Hamburg say, they can exclude this...

The other possibility is a restaurant in Lübeck, where many of the people had been. And it IS important to publish all those possibilities, even if they should turn out to be wrong. It makes it much more easy for the others to confirm that they have been there, too, or to disagree and say: "There must be another source, because I've never been there."

And if they find a lot of other bacteria on the way, this maybe bad for some, but good for the most of us.

A common factor with salad vegetables is that we WASH them all in lots of supposedly clean water.

Could someone have 'poisoned the water hole' by any chance?

This is a very extremely rare occurence as ecoli infections tend to be small localised group.

I'm sure they have microbiologists looking into the water BUT was it (if it is water) an accident or deliberate?

Now it looks as if the main suspects are bean sprouts from Lower Saxony. This time they seem to be rather sure.
The producer co-operates with the officials.

I love those sprouts myself, but usually I cook them. Nevertheless I will keep my hands off them, until the drama is over.