Health News

Spain complains to Germany and EU over cucumber germ accusations

May 27, 2011, 12:42 GMT

Madrid - Spain has complained formally to Germany and the European Union over Berlin's handling of a virulent super-bacterium which was claimed to have originated in Spanish cucumbers, a senior official said Friday.

The bacterium known as EHEC has killed four people and left hundreds ill in Germany.

Germany informed the press about the disease before informing the EU, as it should have done, Spanish senior official Josep Puxeu said.

Spain has stopped cucumber deliveries that the disease has been linked with, but stresses there is no proof that the EHEC entered Germany through Spanish cucumbers.

Hamburg's hygiene institute discovered the bacterium on three cucumbers from Spain, the city-state's health minister Cornelia Pruefer-Storcks said earlier.