Officials investigate restaurant where 18 E.coli victims dined

The search for clues to the source of the E.coli outbreak which has killed 19 Europeans and infected more than 1,700 worldwide was concentrated yesterday on a restaurant in the northern German town of Lubeck.

Some 18 people, including a party of tax officials and Danish tourists, fell ill after eating there. One has since died, and two others are in a critical condition.

It is not thought the eatery is directly to blame for any contamination, but, according to Werner Solbach, a microbiologist at the University Medical Centre, Schleswig-Holstein: "The supply chain could give us important clues about how the pathogen was passed along."

If it is possible to track down where the restaurant obtained its salad, fruits and vegetables, then the source of the mutant E.coli bacteria might be found. This has so far eluded health officials.

Efforts to identify the source of the outbreak have been complicated by the fact that salads include a variety of ingredients from different producers and often different countries.

Joachim Berger, proprietor of the Kartoffel-Keller (Potato Cellar) said last night he was devastated to hear that many of his guests had been struck down by the virulent bacteria. "It was like a blow to the head when I heard the news," he said. "We had everyone here tested and everything was disinfected. I paid for the tests myself because safety is important for our guests and employees."

But the Lubecker Nachrichten newspaper reported scientists had identified the restaurant as a possible spot where the bug was passed on.

A German woman who fell ill after eating there belonged to a group of 34 female tax officials who were attending a trade union seminar in the port city of Lubeck from 12-14 May.

At least eight of them became infected with the E.coli bacteria after eating a meal on May 13 in the Kartoffel-Keller, which specialises in potato dishes. Many of those infected have developed the disease haemolytic-uraemic syndrome (HUS), a potentially deadly complication that can affect the kidneys. One of the women who contracted HUS died last Monday. The condition of two of the women is critical and a third needs daily kidney dialysis.

The group has been questioned extensively by investigators from Germany's Robert Koch Institute which is trying to source the pathogen. The women are reported to have told the Robert Koch team that they ate mostly salad - cucumbers and tomatoes. Hence German official health warnings against eating such vegetables.

Mr Berger told Reuters: "We had a group of women here from the tax authorities and they ate la carte. They enjoyed their meal. But the group was in town for quite a few days and also ate elsewhere. None of our employees is sick. No diarrhoea. And they all eat salad and everything we have here."

Mr Berger said his main food supplier was based in the city of Mlln which is between Hamburg and Lubeck. He said his restaurant was "booked out - thank God" - when the IoS spoke to him on Saturday evening.

While Germany is at the centre of the outbreak, people have become ill in 10 other European countries and the United States, probably from eating lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers or other raw salad vegetables in Germany. Places where people have also become ill include Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Britain has 11 cases, all of whom are German or have recently visited the country. The food contamination is believed to have been caused by poor hygiene at a farm, in transit, a shop or food outlet.

E.coli bacteria are usually harmless, but the strain making people sick has the ability to stick to intestinal walls where it pumps out toxins, sometimes causing severe bloody diarrhoea and kidney problems.

Many patients have gone into hospital, with several needing intensive care, including dialysis due to kidney complications. The World Health Organisation said the strain was a rare one, seen in humans before, but never in this kind of outbreak.

The chief doctor for hygiene at Berlinis Vivantes hospital said it was conceivable that the spread of the bacteria had been deliberate and urged authorities to examine that possibility.

"It's quite possible that there's a crazy person out there who thinks 'I'll kill a few people or give 10,000 people diarrhoea'," Klaus-Dieter Zastrow told Bild newspaper. "It's a negligent mistake not to investigate in that direction."

- INDEPENDENT