On air at 1100 GMT: Ecoli cucumber outbreak, should we be worried?
| 10:07 UK time, Tuesday, 31 May 2011
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Fourteen people have died in Germany and hundreds are ill from infections linked to contaminated cucumbers. It's thought the origin of the outbreak is Spain, although the authorities there deny this.
One scientist has told the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ that the number of seriously ill patients is expected to rise, because it can take up to 10 days for symptoms of infection to appear.
In Sweden, authorities said there have been 36 suspected E.coli infections, all linked to travel in northern Germany. Cases have also been reported in Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands and the UK.
Suspicion has fallen on organic cucumbers from Spain imported by Germany but then re-exported to other European countries, or exported directly by Spain.
Stephen in the UK emailed the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳
"The Spanish salad industry has long been an accident waiting to happen. Many of the growers use waste water from sewage plants to irrigate and fertilise the crops. This practice is illegal here, rightly so."
Mercedes tweets
"First possible case in Spain caused by cucumbers. How scary, don't eat cucumbers."
Several countries have decided to ban import of cucumbers and other vegetables from Germany and Spain, including Russia, Austria and Denmark
The World Health Organisation has described the outbreak as "very large and very severe" and has urged countries to work together to find the source of contamination.
One problem with Spanish cucumbers, and ," according to Belgium's Agriculture Minister Sabine Laruelle .
and needlessly damaging trade after blaming the outbreak on "killer cucumbers" imported from Spain.
We'll be speaking to Spanish vegetable producers and exporters and people across Europe affected by the outbreak.
