Hamburg - Recently, he has become the face of Hamburg's doctors effort at taming the E. coli outbreak.
Prominent urologist from Hamburg, Germany, Rolf Stahl heads the urology clinic of the University Medical Center Eppendorf, where doctors fight to save the lives of 120 people with a hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS).
In Hamburg, Rolf Stahl gave an exclusive interview to Aktualne.cz, a Czech on-line daily.
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According to Stahl, there is no precedent to what is currently taking place in Germany. "I have never witnessed anything similar. This is probably the largest outbreak of hemolytic-uremic syndrome that have ever occurred in connection to E. coli. Today, there are already 600 cases of HUS in Germany," he said, adding that it is fortunate that the epidemic erupted in a developed country such as Germany. A less developed country with worse hospital infrastructure and non-existent public health care would suffer much more, according to Stahl.
Stahl said that the last larger E.coli epidemic was registered in 1996 in Japan. "Back then, more than 11,000 schoolchildren got sick after eating radish sprouts contaminated with E.coli."
So far, it is unknown why is the O104 strain, identified last week, so aggressive. "O104 produces an unusually large quantity of poisonous substance, which, unlike other shaga toxins, causes an extraordinarily strong response of the organism."
"The bacterial infection attacks the colonic walls, causing strong diarrhea. The bacteria eventually starts to produce shaga toxin, which enters the kidneys with blood and begins to destroy renal corpuscules. The blood flow in kidneys gets disrupted and they start to fail. A similar process starts also in tiny vessels of the central nervous system, which begins to malfunction," Stahl said, explaining how the infection attacks the body. He added that the most common symptoms are double vision, spasms, seizures similar to those caused by epilepsy, and loss of orientation.
In addition to the unusual toxicity and aggressiveness of the bacteria, there is another strange factor. During previous outbreaks it hit above all children and older women, the current epidemic affects also younger, physically fitter people. "The bacteria enters the body together with food. It is probably somehow linked to the food chain. If it had been proved that E.coli entered the bodies of patients together with vegetable sprouts, it would have had its logic. Sprouts are an important part of diet of many young women, who constitute a significant part of the infected.
Stahl does not agree with critics arguing that German authorities could have had reacted more swiftly and effectively. "This critique is aimed, I think, above all against the Robert Koch Institute. However, I cannot agree with it in any way. As soon as we announced the first cases of infection, the institute immediately made first necessary steps. In addition, it is very difficult to assume this role and find the core of an epidemic."
According to Stahl, Germany was well prepared to handle the epidemic, even though some hospitals have started to suffer from lack of personnel recently. Nonetheless, these problems are more about management errors than lack of finances, he explained.
"I am a huge supporter of health care financed from state resources. The taming of the current E.coli epidemics has shown how effective such system can be.
