Spain seeks compensation for E. coli blame

Anger is growing in Spain over being blamed as the source of the E. coli outbreak that has killed 18 people and left hundreds more seriously ill.

Spanish PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Spain would demand reparations for the economic losses suffered.
The outbreak - centred on Germany - is a new form of the E. coli bacterium, health researchers have said.
Seven people in the UK have the infection. They are all thought to have contracted it in Germany.
Spanish fruit and vegetable exporters estimate they are losing 200m euros ($290m; £177m) a week in sales every week after Germany said earlier in the outbreak that it probably originated with Spanish cucumbers.
No evidence of this has been found and researchers are scrambling to find the source.
"We acted as we had to, and we are going to get reparations and the return of Spanish products to their rightful place," said Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero.
"I believe that any other interpretation or any effort to politicise the huge mistake made by the German authorities is totally unfair."

Tens of thousands of kilos of fresh fruit and vegetables grown in Spain are being destroyed, says the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Almeira, Spain's "fruitbasket".

Sales to supermarkets across Europe have ground to a halt, our correspondent says: not just cucumbers, but everything.
Seeking to halt the spread of the outbreak to the east, Russia has banned imports of fresh vegetables from the European Union.
The outbreak remains centred on Germany, where there have been 1,064 cases of bloody diarrhoea and 470 cases of the potentially deadly complication in the blood and kidneys.

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A leading microbiologist has warned the E. coli outbreak may worsen

Seventeen people in Germany and one in Sweden have died. Cases of HUS have also been reported in Denmark, the Netherlands and Spain.
Three people in the US, who have travelled recently to Germany, are suspected of having haemolytic-uraemic syndrome (HUS), which affects the kidneys and can be fatal.
Scientists at the Beijing Genomics Institute in China described the outbreak as due to a new form of the E. coli bacterium that was "highly infectious and toxic".

HUS cases and deaths, by country

• Germany: 470 cases, 17 deaths
• Sweden: 15 cases, one death
• Denmark: Seven cases
• The Netherlands: Three cases
• UK: Three cases
• Spain: One case

Sources: European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Robert Koch Institute, UK Health Protection Agency

Britain's Health Protection Agency said it was likely to be a new variant of the rare strain O104 - possibly with a newly acquired ability to infect large numbers of people.

In a statement it said: "While there is a lot more that we need to learn about this bacterium, the evidence that is already available tells us that the German authorities have been dealing with something new."
The World Health Organization said the variant had "never been seen in an outbreak situation before."
Speaking to Reuters news agency, Dr Robert Tauxe of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the strain was probably the most deadly yet.
The head of the Robert Koch Institute, which monitors the infection in Germany, said the outbreak could last for months and that "we may never know" the original source.