At least 12 people have died in Germany from a highly virulent strain of bacteria found on imported cucumbers, authorities said Monday.
The latest reported death was that of an 87-year-old woman from the Parchim area in northeastern Germany who was admitted to hospital on Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the Rostock regional health authority said.
She died on Saturday.
Eleven of the 12 dead were women and all but one came from northern Germany.
Several hundred people are being treated in hospitals for enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) which can result in full-blown haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), a disease that causes bloody diarrhoea and serious liver damage and which can result in death.
Berlin, May 30, 2011 (AFP)
