Massive delusions in EHEC crisis

Foodwatch makes serious allegations against government over deception over EHEC crisis

20/09/2013

In 2011, the EHEC pathogen spreads fear and terror. For a long time the authorities grope in the dark regarding the origin of the germ. At that time, almost 3,842 people contracted severe EHEC infection, which ended in fatality for 53 patients. A full education has never existed, now claims the consumer organization Foodwatch. She accuses the government of knowingly misleading the population. There were at most 500 cases of illness been clarified. For all others, the cause of the EHEC infection is still unclear.

At least 87 percent of EHEC cases were not cleared up
Although the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the central body of the federal government for disease surveillance and prevention, dismissed all allegations by Foodwatch, but confirmed some results of a study by the consumer protection organization, after which only a small part of the cases were cleared up. „At least 87 percent of all reported EHEC cases were filed without clarifying the source of the infection. This has the responsible Robert Koch Institute now confirmed to Foodwatch.“, informs the organization in a press release. As a spokeswoman of the RKI announced on Friday, it is normal for food infections that only a part of the patients will be questioned by the authority.

Foodwatch: Government deceives population about educating EHEC cases
In May 2011, shortly after the EHEC outbreak, a Lower Saxon sprout producer was identified by the authorities as triggering the EHEC wave. In the spring of 2012 presented Consumer Protection Minister Ilse Aigner (CDU) and Minister of Health Daniel Bahr (FDP) then fenugreek seeds from Egypt, which were sprouted and sold by the operation in the district of Uelzen, as the cause of the disease „almost certainly“.

However, according to Foodwatch, it is still not certain that the Lower Saxon court was the sole source of the pathogen's pathogen. In the final report of the Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) is among other things, a total list of all EHEC outbreak, the consumer protection organization. However, Foodwatch found that such a list never existed. Also, the RKI should have confirmed this by now. In a first list only 350 cases of illness were examined and listed. Later you have created a second list of 500 cases.

Accordingly, about 3,300 EHEC cases are still unclear. „The suspicion is obvious that the federal government here has sought and found a pawn sacrifice to calm the unsettled population. Neither the authorities nor the federal government seem to have a genuine interest in clarifying the EHEC events. The Federal Government has celebrated a success as ominous as the appearance and disappearance of the EHEC pathogen“, criticizes Foodwatch. (Ag)

Picture: Markus Wegner