News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Calling for better prevention from catchment to consumer, the World Health Organization (WHO) on Sep 21 issued new guidelines to ensure drinking-water safety worldwide.

(CIDRAP News) – When people think of food irradiation, they probably think about irradiation of ground beef to kill E coli. So when a company whose pepper-coated salami has been linked to a 40-state Salmonella outbreak pledged this week to use irradiated pepper from now on, it may have raised some eyebrows and sparked new interest.

(CIDRAP News) – Questions abounded today concerning the large and growing outbreak of Escherichia coli infections concentrated in northern Germany, including where it came from, why it is striking mostly women, and why the number of reported hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) cases, at 276, is so unusually high.

(CIDRAP News) – The count of cases and deaths in Europe's Escherichia coli outbreak pushed higher today, with various news reports citing about 1,500 cases and 17 deaths, while the source of the epidemic remained a mystery.

(CIDRAP News) – The official toll of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) cases in Europe climbed above 1,600 today, with at least 16 deaths, as the pathogen's source remained elusive and one team of scientists called the strain new and "super-toxic."

(CIDRAP News) – The case count in Europe's unprecedented Escherichia coli outbreak climbed steeply again today as the number of potentially related cases in the United States rose to four, while a scientific debate continued on whether the outbreak strain, E coli O104:H4, is new or unique.

(CIDRAP News) – German authorities investigating a possible sprout link to a large Escherichia coli outbreak said today that lab samples are negative so far, dashing hopes for a quick end to the investigation and adding more confusion to the search for the source.