Learning from the EHEC crisis

Conclusion of the EHEC epidemic: Improved crisis management required

04/04/2012

The EHEC crisis last year has made it clear that coordinated cooperation requires all federal and state actors to quickly deal with such threats to public health. Communication also plays a crucial role, not only in protecting the population, but also in avoiding economic damage caused by unjustified allegations.

Although it was possible to put together in the wake of the EHEC crisis „Task force“ From experts from the federal government, the federal states and the European Food Safety Authority, it was relatively easy to convince them of the results, but by the time the group of experts started their work, the EHEC crisis was already well under way. Therefore, the Federal Government plans to draw up a contingency plan which, in the event of comparable crises, will set clear guidelines for the convening of an emergency plan „Task Force Food Safety“ with experts from federal and state governments, said Bernhard Kühnle from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture on Tuesday in Berlin.

Task Force helped to identify the source of EHEC pathogens
After more and more people in the early summer of last year showed the typical EHEC symptoms, began the feverish search for the causes. The task force set up by the EU, federal and state governments made a significant contribution to finally identifying fenugreek seeds from Egypt as a source of EHEC infections. With the seeds apparently the hitherto unknown EHEC pathogen O104: H4 was imported. This particular strain of enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) is particularly aggressive and relatively often causes severe complications in the disease process - the so-called Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS). A total of 53 people died last year as a result of EHEC infection, around 4,000 were ill, including more than 850 in HUS.

Emergency plan to manage food crises
In order to be better able to handle such crises, the Federal Government is now planning to set up a contingency plan for food crisis management. For example, the autumn conference on consumer protection will also decide on future crisis management, with the „Task Force Food Safety“ from now on to work according to clear rules, said the head of food safety of the Federal Consumer Ministry, Bernhard Kühnle. According to Kühnle, the federal and state governments are currently planning to sign a corresponding agreement. The emergency plan is not only intended to set clear guidelines for setting up the task force, but also to specify who in the federal and state governments at what time with information to the public. Because here was one of the major weaknesses of crisis management in the EHEC crisis last year. While the information needs to be passed on to the population in a timely manner, this should be done consistently.

Consumption warnings always a balancing act
Various consumption warnings in the individual federal states - as in the case of the EHEC epidemic 2011 - are not effective and cause only uncertainty in the population, said Kühnle. Although the Ministry of Consumer Protection still considers the warnings given at the time of eating cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce to be correct, the type of communication encountered considerable criticism. Sales of suspected products plummeted, plunging manufacturers into a major financial crisis. Although it later turned out that not tomatoes, cucumbers or lettuce but fenugreek sprouts were behind the EHEC epidemic, nevertheless „Consumption recommendations are always a tightrope walk while still under investigation“, emphasized Kühnle. Compensated producers were also granted compensation, although the funds provided at EU level have not even been fully used, said Kühnle. (Fp)

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Picture: Markus Wegner