Focus shifts to sprouts in E.coli outbreak (AP)

BERLIN � Frightened consumers are awaiting the release of official test results that will most likely confirm that vegetable sprouts from an organic farm in northern Germany caused the terrifying E. coli outbreak in Europe that has killed 22 and sickened more than 2,200.

Authorities say even if sprouts from the farm in the greater Uelzen region, between Hamburg and Hannover, are confirmed as the only source of the bacterial epidemic, more cases of the illness are likely for at least another week.

Health officials are warning against earting any sprouts, but are also keeping up a general warning for tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuces.

German Health Minister Daniel Bahr said late Sunday that the government cannot give an all-clear until the official results � expected for Monday � come in.

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E. coli outbreak blamed on German veggie sprouts (AP)

HAMBURG, Germany � The terrifying E. coli outbreak in Europe appears to have been caused by vegetable sprouts grown on an organic farm in Germany, an agriculture official said Sunday as the toll climbed to at least 22 dead and more than 2,200 sickened.

Preliminary tests found that bean sprouts and other sprout varieties from the farm in the Uelzen area, between the northern cities of Hamburg and Hannover, could be traced to infections in five German states, Lower Saxony Agriculture Minister Gert Lindemann said.

"There were more and more indications in the last few hours that put the focus on this farm," Lindemann said.

Many restaurants involved in what is now the deadliest known E. coli outbreak in modern history had received deliveries of the sprouts, which are often used in salads, Lindemann spokesman Gert Hahne told The Associated Press.

Definitive test results should be available Monday, Lindemann said.

In recent days, as health officials tried to pinpoint the source of the unusually lethal outbreak, suspicion fell on lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes, perhaps from Spain. Spanish farmers complained that the accusations were having a devastating financial effect.

"First it's the `evil' Spaniards, and then you hear, very surprised, that it is our neighbor," said Dietrich Benni, who lives near the German farm. "It's a bit scary all of this, especially that it is coming from an organic place."

He added: "No more organic food for me for now."

The farm was shut down Sunday and all its produce recalled, including fresh herbs, fruits, flowers and potatoes. Two of its employees were also infected with E. coli, Lindemann said. He said 18 different sprout mixtures from the farm were under suspicion, including sprouts of mung beans, broccoli, peas, chickpeas, garlic lentils and radishes.

As for how the sprouts became contaminated, Lindemann noted that they are grown with steam in barrels at 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit) � an ideal environment for bacteria to multiply.

He said it is possible that the water was contaminated with E. coli or that the sprout seeds � purchased in Germany and other countries � contained the germ. He said the farmers had not used any manure, which is commonly spread on organic farms and has been known to cause E. coli outbreaks.

Lindemann urged Germans not to eat sprouts until further notice. He said authorities could not yet rule out other possible sources and warned Germans to continue avoiding tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce for now.

AP journalists went to the farm on Sunday night, but nobody was available to talk. Telephone messages left at the farm's office were also not immediately returned.

The outbreak has been blamed on a highly aggressive, "super-toxic" strain of E. coli, perhaps one that scientists have never seen before.

E. coli can be found in the feces of humans and livestock and can spread to produce through sloppy bathroom habits among farmworkers and through animal waste in fields and in irrigation water. Organic farms tend to use more manure than other producers do.

Sprouts have been implicated in previous E. coli outbreaks, particularly one in 1996 in Japan, where tainted radish sprouts killed 12 people and reportedly sickened more than 12,000 others.

The head of Germany's national disease control center raised the death toll to 22 Sunday � 21 in Germany and one in Sweden � and said an additional 2,153 people in Germany have been sickened. That figure included 627 people who have developed a rare, serious complication of the disease that can cause kidney failure. Ten other European nations and the U.S. have reported a total of 90 other victims.

Earlier Sunday, Germany's health minister fiercely defended his country's handling of the crisis as he toured a hospital in Hamburg, the epicenter of the emergency.

The comments by Health Minister Daniel Bahr reflected a sharp shift in his public response to the crisis and came after AP journalists reported on emergency room chaos and unsanitary conditions at the same hospital, the University Medical Center in Hamburg-Eppendorf.

On Saturday, Bahr admitted that hospitals in northern Germany were overwhelmed and struggling to provide beds and medical care for victims of the outbreak, and he suggested that other German regions start taking in sick patients from the north.

But after one E. coli survivor told the AP that conditions at the Hamburg hospital were horrendous when she arrived with cramps and bloody diarrhea, Bahr announced a visit and told reporters that German medical workers and northern state governments were doing "everything necessary" to help victims.

Nicoletta Pabst, 41, told the AP that sanitary conditions at the Hamburg-Eppendorf hospital were shocking and its emergency room was overflowing with ailing people when she arrived May 25.

"All of us had diarrhea and there was only one bathroom each for men and women � it was a complete mess," she said Saturday. "If I hadn't been sick with E. coli by then, I probably would have picked it up over there."

Doctors and nurses in northern Germany have been working overtime for weeks since the crisis began May 2.

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Grieshaber reported from Berlin.

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Cellphone cancer warning falls lightly on US ears (AP)

NEW YORK � News last week that an arm of the World Health Organization said cellphones might raise the risk of brain cancer has been greeted by Americans mostly with a shrug of the shoulder � one that's pinning a cellphone to the ear.

Google searches for "cancer" and "cellphones" spiked this week. And some people vowed to get headsets to shield themselves from radiation. But most seemed to either dismiss the warning as too vague, or reason that if the most useful device in modern life poses a serious health risk, then so be it.

"I was watching the news about it, and I thought, `I'm already screwed because I've been talking on the phone for seven years,'" said Genevieve Chamorro, a 31-year-old New Yorker who was shopping for a phone.

John Gottani, a manager at a cellphone store in New York, said he's been selling phones for six years and has never heard anyone ask if they cause cancer. The only things customers really care about, Gottani said, are "if it works, and if it texts."

The International Agency for Research on Cancer reviewed dozens of published studies on cellphones and cancer before classifying cellphones as "possibly carcinogenic" on Tuesday. It's a risk category that includes night-shift work, engine exhaust and coffee.

Studies haven't been able to rule out a link between cellphones and cancer. But experts say that if there is a link, it's unlikely to be strong. Cellphones emit weak radio waves, which, under the conventional understanding of physics, can't wreak the same sort of cellular changes that sunlight and radioactivity can.

A common tip offered to those who want to reduce their exposure to cellphone radiation is to use a headset. Even wireless Bluetooth headsets reduce radiation exposure. Though they emit radio signals of their own, they're much weaker than cellphone signals.

But there seems to be little rush to get Bluetooth headsets. They've been declining in popularity for at least four years, according to research firm Strategy Analytics. It's also found that most headset owners don't intend to replace the one they have when it wears out.

According to Strategy Analytics analyst Chris Schreiner, the main reason is that when you're wearing a Bluetooth headset, you look like a person who's wearing a Bluetooth headset.

"Style has always been a huge issue in terms of Bluetooth headsets," Schreiner said.

On Twitter this week, the most common posts mentioning "headset" and "cancer" have been repeats of a joke from humor site Someecards.com: "I can't decide between being seen wearing a Bluetooth headset or just getting brain cancer."

Cellphones differ in how much radiation they emit. Proposals in a few states would force cellphone stores to display these radiation ratings.

But CTIA-The Wireless Association, the cellphone industry trade group, is fighting these moves. It says there's no evidence the measured ratings have any correlation with risks. And cellphone manufacturers and carriers are showing no sign of breaking ranks with each other to use the ratings to their advantage � for instance, by touting "low-radiation phones."

Spokesman John Walls said CTIA wouldn't fight a manufacturer that wanted to market a "low-radiation phone." But claiming a phone to be safer than any other would cross the line, he said.

"They're all deemed safe by science," Walls said.

Americans on average talk about 700 minutes a month on their cellphones, making them some of the most talkative people in the world, well ahead of Europeans.

In San Francisco, Chuck Luter, 42, said he doesn't plan to change his habits as a result of the radiation warning. When the advertising-shoot prop stylist talks on his Sidekick phone, he usually uses the speakerphone, so it's not close to his head.

And in any case, he texts more than he talks. Besides, he added, there are few alternatives to owning a cellphone.

"What are the other options? To not have one? To try to keep it all in your head? There are so many bad things for you � just add this to the pile."

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AP Technology Writer Jordan Robertson contributed from San Francisco. AP Business Writer Christina Rexrode contributed from New York.

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Peter Svensson can be reached at http://twitter.com/petersvensson

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German hospitals overwhelmed with E.coli outbreak (AP)

BERLIN � Hospitals in northern Germany are being overwhelmed as they struggle to provide enough beds and medical care for patients stricken by an outbreak of E. coli, the German health minister admitted Sunday.

"The situation in the hospitals is intense," minister Daniel Bahr told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper, adding that clinics outside of Hamburg and northern Germany � the epicenter of the E.coli outbreak � should start taking in ill persons from the north.

Bahr announced he would visit the University Medical Center in Hamburg-Eppendorf later Sunday to see the situation firsthand and talk to physicians and nurses who have been working overtime and double-shifts for weeks in a row.

Hamburg is the epicenter of the deadliest E. coli outbreak in modern history, which has killed at least 18 people since May 2. More than 1,700 people in Germany have been infected, including 520 suffering from a life-threatening complication that can cause kidney failure. Ten other European nations and the U.S. have reported 90 other cases, all but two related to visits in northern Germany.

One E. coli survivor, 41-year-old Nicoletta Pabst, told The Associated Press that sanitary conditions at the Hamburg-Eppendorf hospital were horrendous when she arrived with cramps and bloody diarrhea. She said at least 20 others had a similar condition in the emergency room.

"All of us had diarrhea and there was only one bathroom each for men and women � it was a complete mess," she said. "If I hadn't been sick with E. coli by then, I probably would have picked it up over there."

After waiting three hours to be seen, Pabst was told to go home because her blood levels did not indicate that she had kidney failure. She had to return by ambulance the next morning and was hospitalized for a week at a different hospital.

While suspicion has fallen on raw tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce as the source of the bacterial outbreak, researchers have been unable to pinpoint exactly where or what food was responsible.

Researchers from Germany's national disease control center have inspected a restaurant in the northern city of Luebeck where 17 people were reported to have fallen ill with E. coli last month. Health experts were also investigating whether the disease spread at a festival in Hamburg that was visited by 1.5 million people.

Critics have questioned the slow pace of the investigation. The medical director of Berlin's Charite Hospitals, Ulrich Frei, said it made him "anxious" that a month after the outbreak there was still no clue as to what caused it and said experts "should have interviewed the patients right away."

Fear of the aggressive E.coli outbreak also spread to countries outside Europe.

The Gulf nation of Qatar on Sunday temporarily banned imports of fresh cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce from Spain and Germany because of concerns and insisted all other fresh fruit and vegetable shipments from Europe carry a health certificate declaring they are free of the E. coli bacteria.

The United Arab Emirates has banned cucumber imports from Spain, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands, while Lebanon has banned all vegetables from the 27-nation European Union.

Russia has also banned vegetables from the entire EU to keep the outbreak from spreading east, a move the EU called disproportionate and Italian farmers denounced as "absurd." No E. coli infections have been reported in Russia.

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Adam Schreck contributed to this story from Dubai.

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Survivor of E. coli tells story of ordeal (AP)

BERLIN � When Nicoletta Pabst woke up last week with stomach cramps and diarrhea at her Hamburg home, it didn't really bother her too much. But when she discovered blood in her stool a few hours later, she got worried.

Hamburg is at the epicenter of an E. coli outbreak, which has killed at least 18 people since May 2.

"We'd all been reading the scary news about the E. coli outbreak in our region for days," the 41-year-old homemaker said in an interview with The Associated Press on Saturday. "So I talked with my husband about it and he took me to the university hospital right away."

The epidemic is considered the deadliest E. coli outbreak in modern history. More than 1,700 people in Germany have been sickened, including 520 with a life-threatening complication that can cause kidney failure. Ten other European nations and the U.S. have reported 90 additional cases, all but two related to visits in northern Germany.

While suspicion has fallen on raw tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce as the source of the bacteria, researchers have been unable to pinpoint the food responsible for the outbreak.

When Pabst and her husband arrived at the emergency room of the University Medical Center in Hamburg-Eppendorf, they were shocked by the chaotic scenes there.

"All patients suspected of E. coli were led to a separate location for examination," remembered Pabst. "When I arrived, there were at least 20 other people and more and more kept coming in, many of them by ambulance."

She said sanitary conditions in the emergency room were abhorrent.

"All of us had diarrhea and there was only one bathroom each for men and women � it was a complete mess," she said. "If I hadn't been sick with E. coli by then, I probably would have picked it up over there."

After waiting three hours to be seen, Pabst was told to go home because her blood levels did not indicate that she had kidney failure.

Hospitals in Hamburg have been struggling to provide enough beds for all the infected patients in recent weeks, and several people have said they were initially turned down, only to return days later with much more severe symptoms.

Pabst's stomach cramps and bloody stools also got worse during the night. The next morning she was so weak that she couldn't get up from bed, and her husband called an ambulance.

She was hospitalized at Asklepios Hospital in Hamburg-Altona and taken to an isolation room that doctors and nurses were only allowed to enter when covered from head to toe in protective gowns, gloves and mask.

Health officials questioned her about the food she'd been eating, and as a precaution her children were no longer allowed to go to school.

Nobody else in Pabst's family got sick "even though we all ate the same tomatoes, cucumbers and salads," she remembered.

The cause of her infection seemed to point to home cooking at her house or a friend's, unlike suggestions Saturday that many people may have been infected while visiting a port festival in Hamburg last month or a restaurant in the northern German city of Luebeck, where health officials were investigating whether 17 persons might have been infected there.

Mostly women have been infected by the mysterious bacterial outbreak, but again, experts have not been able to find the reason for that either.

Pabst had to stay at the hospital for one week.

"For the first two days, I was completely exhausted, nodding off, not aware at all of what was happening around me," Pabst remembered. She was put on an intravenous drip and her doctor decided to treat her with antibiotics despite official recommendations by the World Heath Organization and the German health ministry not to do so.

German Health Minister Daniel Bahr specifically warned Saturday against using antibiotics to quell the disease.

"It is not reasonable to use antibiotics because E. coli infections produce toxins which can be increasingly released by antibiotics and harm the organism badly," Bahr told daily newspaper Ruhr Nachrichten.

Nonetheless, there have been more and more reports about doctors treating their patients with unconventional, non-approved therapies like antibody treatment or antibiotics, often simply because traditional treatment does not improve the patients' health.

Friedrich Hagenmueller, the medical director of Asklepios Hospital, treated Pabst with antibiotics early on "because what we had been doing so far in this outbreak hasn't been very successful."

"Her quick recovery has encouraged me to try out antibiotics on other incoming patients as well," Hagenmueller told the AP.

Hans-Joerg Epple, a gastroenterologist and infectologist at Berlin's Benjamin-Franklin-Hospital, said that while antibiotics were normally not given to E. coli patients, some experts were looking into treating the current E. coli strain with specific kinds of antibiotics.

"It is quite unusual and we don't have a lot of data on this, but there are indications that some kinds of antibiotics may be helpful here," Epple said.

Pabst's recovery started 48 hours after she'd received her first dose of antibiotics and on Wednesday she was discharged from the hospital.

Her children will be allowed to go back to school next week and Pabst said she's feeling strong and healthy again herself � she even took her kids to the market on Saturday, but only to look at the fresh produce there.

"One thing's for sure: as long as the cause of the E. coli outbreak has not been found, there'll be no more vegetables or fruit in our house," Pabst said. "We're only eating deep-frozen meals and spaghetti these days."

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Germany presses to find cause of E.coli outbreak (AP)

BERLIN � Was it a restaurant in Luebeck? A port festival in Hamburg? Or a yet-unknown site, still churning out deadly E. coli infections?

Speculation ran high Saturday about exactly where people were infected, especially since German health officials had no concrete proof yet about the source of the bacterial outbreak that has killed 18 people and sickened hundreds.

Local media reported Saturday that 17 persons fell ill with E. coli after they ate in the northern German city of Luebeck last month, and that researchers from Germany's national disease control center were inspecting the restaurant.

Other media said health experts were investigating whether the disease first spread at a festival in the northern city of Hamburg last month that was visited by 1.5 million people.

Those sickened at the Luebeck restaurant included eight women who participated in a workshop in the city, a group of tourists from Denmark and a child from southern Germany.

"The restaurant is not responsible for this, however by looking at their delivery companies, we may be able to find out how and from where the bacteria spread," Werner Solback, a microbiologist from the university hospital in Luebeck, was quoted as telling the Luebecker Nachrichten paper.

The current E.coli outbreak is the deadliest in modern history. More than 1,700 people in Germany have been sickened, including 520 suffering from a life-threatening complication that can cause kidney failure. Ten other European nations and the U.S. have reported 90 other cases, all but two related to visits in northern Germany.

The news magazine Focus reported Saturday that the first patients were hospitalized a week after the Hamburg festival and said the national disease control center, the Robert Koch Institute, assumes that many people likely were infected there. The institute has not discussed this theory and could not be reached for comment Saturday.

German Health Minister Daniel Bahr, meanwhile, warned Saturday that the cause of the infection may still be active.

"We have to continue to be alert," Bahr told daily paper Ruhr Nachrichten. "Health officials are working nonstop to find the cause for all the infections, however, from outbreaks in the past we know that often the cause cannot be clearly identified."

Bahr reiterated the general warning to avoid eating cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce.

Researcher Dag Harmsen at the Muenster University Hospital, which has been closely involved in the investigation, said that scientists were hoping to know enough about the E. coli strain by next week to be able to prevent new infections and better treat patients.

To avoid illness, the World Health Organization recommends that people wash their hands, keep raw meat separate from other food, thoroughly cook any food, and wash fruits and vegetables. Experts also recommend peeling raw fruits and vegetables if possible.

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