Death of an Arizona resident is linked to Europe's sprout-related Escherichia coli O104:H4 outbreak

The CDC confirmed that the Arizona patient had the same strain of E. coli that has swept Europe. More than 4,100 people in Europe and North America have been infected in two outbreaks of E. coli infection, one centered in northern Germany and one focused around the French city of Bordeaux. Five of the US patients had traveled to Germany before they got sick, and one was a close contact of a Michigan patient who had HUS, a serious kidney disorder. The Arizona Department of Health Services had previously said that the patient is a man older than 65 who died in mid June after he was hospitalized for HUS, according to a Jun 24 report from the Arizona Republic. An imported lot of fenugreek seeds which was used to grow sprouts imported from Egypt by a German importer is the most common likely link," the European Food Safety Authority said in a statement this week.