The investigation continues on the wave of poisoning at the bacteria E. coli. Four people are still hospitalized, the Aisne prefecture announced on Tuesday.
“Thirty cases were reported to us during the epidemiological survey,” said the Paris Laure Beccuau prosecutor on RTL, adding that “each case that is now manifested in a hospital center is identified and analyzed”.
Death of an 11 -year -old child
The Saint-Quentin prosecution, which had opened a preliminary investigation by manslaughter, involuntary injuries, endangering and deception aggravated by the endangering of human health, died on June 25 for the benefit of the public health center of the Paris prosecutor’s office, with regard to the number of victims and the complexity of investigations.
Among the 30 cases are a 73 -year -old person and 29 children, including Elise, who died on June 16 at 11 years old. The prosecutor said that the youngest child touched was an 11 month old female sex. “The state of health of all contaminated people is improving,” said the Aisne prefecture on Tuesday evening. “Four are still hospitalized and no more dialysis.”
Two current surveys
Two surveys, a so -called epidemiological health and a judiciary, are carried out parallel and will “have bridges between them,” said Laure Beccuau. The epidemiological survey determined that this bacteria E. coli in its structure is originally “rather a contamination for meat consumption”, hence the closure of butcheries, she recalled. Four butcher shops in Saint-Quentin, as well as the butcher’s department of a supermarket, are still closed, said the prefecture of Aisne.
The Paris prosecutor said he was waiting for the more precise result of sequencing the genome of the bacteria “probably on Wednesday”. Sequel the genome of the bacteria is to define “almost the digital imprint of this bacteria”, this “which will allow us to determine with certainty that all the victims have been contaminated with the same bacteria”. “Then we will make the comparison with these same sequencing genome of the bacteria with the samples that we made in the butcheries” targeted.
Our file on the bacteria E. coli
“The bacteria E. coli, it is found everywhere. Each individual even has it in his intestine. The difficulty is that there are E. coli bacteria that are said to be pathogenic, ”said the prosecutor. It has not excluded other cases, if people thaw and consume meat previously purchased, specifying that the time of “development and appearance of symptoms is between 10 and 15 days”.
The prosecutor stressed that the last two cases were linked to “secondary contamination, by hands. That is to say that a contaminated person must have […] Get out of the toilet without washing your hands well, and holding the hands of another person who suddenly will be contaminated ”.
