2 U.S. Military Members Sickened as E. Coli Outbreak 'Stabilizes' in Europe

[Geee]

Fox News:

KAISERSLAUTERN, GERMANY – Two U.S. servicemembers based in Germany were suspected of being victims of Europe's E. coli outbreak Friday, as European authorities said the outbreak was "stabilizing."

U.S. military medical officers were awaiting test results from samples taken from the ill servicemembers -- and they could be confirmed late Friday or Monday, according to Phillip Tegtmeier, a spokesman for the US military's Europe Regional Medical Command.

"We're testing [for E. coli] as a precaution," he told military newspaper Stars and Stripes on Friday.

One of the U.S. servicemembers, an airman, remains in the hospital at the Spangahlem Air Base, in western Germany.

The other American reportedly affected was treated and released while based in Heidelberg, 48 miles south of Frankfurt.


The two suspected US military cases were among some 2,000 people hit by the E. coli outbreak across Europe, which so far claimed 18 lives, AFP reported.

The virus reportedly spread to a 12th country Friday, but all the deaths from the outbreak except one occurred in Germany. The other death, in Sweden, was a person who had just returned from Germany.

[Pepper]

Geee

 

At first everyone was blaming Spanish cucumbers. Now it may be German bean sprouts.

 

Officials said they had pinpointed a farm in Lower Saxony as the likely producer of the the tainted vegetables behind the deadliest E. coli outbreak in modern history that caused widespread panic across the Continent.

[Geee]

I remember quite a few years back having an outbreak in the US caused by bean sprouts-but not near this bad.