Four more pensioners die in food poisoning outbreak
By Auslan Cramb, Scottish Correspondent
FOUR elderly people died yesterday in a food poisoning outbreak that has already claimed one life and which has been linked to cooked meat from an award-winning butcher's shop.
Two men and three women have now died and more than 110 people, including 18 children, have been affected in central Scotland in the worst outbreak of food poisoning for 12 years.
Six adults and two children are said to be "giving cause for concern". A health official said the outbreak would "probably get worse before it gets better". More than half of the sufferers have been confirmed as having the same E coli 0157 bacterium.
It was first identified in Britain in 1982. It is found in the gut of cattle and is spread mainly through undercooked hamburgers and mince, as well as cow's milk and cheese. The organism releases toxins which cause internal bleeding, leading to diarrhoea, severe cramp and vomiting. Up to 30 per cent of patients develop kidney problems.
The men who died became ill after eating steak pie at a pensioners' lunch at the Old Parish Church in Wishaw, near Glasgow.
Health officials believe that the outbreak has been caused by cooked meat sold by John M Barr & Son, of Wishaw, named two months ago as Scottish Butcher of the Year. The shop supplies cooked meats to more than 30 wholesalers and retailers in Lothian, Ayrshire, Glasgow, Falkirk and Lanarkshire.
Most of the victims are from the Wishaw area, but nine people have been infected in Bonnybridge, near Falkirk, and one person has become ill in Livingston, West Lothian.
Dr Sayed Ahmed, a public health consultant with Lanarkshire Health Board, said: "We know from previous outbreaks in the UK and other parts of the world that as many as five per cent of people with the severe form can die.
"The worst thing in the Lanarkshire cases is that it is mainly affecting older people. All the other outbreaks have affected younger people, who are more likely to be able to resist."
Alexander Gardiner, 69, from Wishaw, died early yesterday in Law Hospital, Carluke, Lanarkshire. A 71-year-old Lanarkshire woman died in the same hospital during the afternoon and a woman of 79 died at Monklands General Hospital, Airdrie. An elderly woman died at home at Bonnybridge. The first victim, on Tuesday, was Harry Shaw, 80, from Wishaw.
Among the 18 children infected are a seven-year-old girl and a boy of three who are receiving kidney dialysis in Glasgow.
The health board said that one of its priorities was to prevent secondary cases, in which germs are spread from person to person.
Officials have advised people to retain cooked meat from the Wishaw shop, wash their hands if they have touched it and contact the health authorities at once.
The family business, based in Wishaw for 28 years, employs 40 people. It was still open for business yesterday, but has withdrawn all cooked meats and is co-operating with health officials.
John Barr refused to comment. Owen Ness, his solicitor, said: "Mr Barr is overwhelmed by how grave the situation has become. He is co-operating fully with the health officers."
The outbreak is the worst since 19 patients died at Stanley Royd Hospital, Wakefield, West Yorks, in 1984.
