E. coli in Aisne: 30 cases, genome sequencing results expected Wednesday

"Thirty cases were reported to us during the epidemiological investigation," Laure Beccuau said on RTL, adding that "every case that now appears in a hospital is identified and analyzed."

The Saint-Quentin public prosecutor's office, which had opened a preliminary investigation into the charges of involuntary manslaughter, involuntary injury, endangerment and deception aggravated by endangering human health, relinquished jurisdiction on June 25 in favor of the public health division of the Paris public prosecutor's office, given the number of victims and the complexity of the investigations.

The 30 cases include a 73-year-old man and 29 children, including Elise, who died on June 16 at the age of 11. The prosecutor said the youngest child affected was an 11-month-old girl.

"The health of all those infected is improving," the Aisne prefecture assured on Tuesday evening.

"Four are still hospitalized and none are receiving dialysis," the prefecture added in a statement.

Two investigations, one of epidemiological health and one of judicial investigations, are being conducted in parallel and will "have links between them," explained Ms. Beccuau.

The epidemiological investigation determined that the structure of this E. coli bacteria originated rather from contamination through meat consumption," hence the closure of butcher shops, she recalled.

Four butcher shops in Saint-Quentin, as well as the butcher's section of a supermarket, remain closed, the Aisne prefecture announced.

The Paris prosecutor indicated that she was expecting more precise results from the sequencing of the bacteria's genome "probably on Wednesday."

Sequencing the bacteria's genome means defining "almost the fingerprint of this bacteria," which "will allow us to determine with certainty that all the victims were contaminated with the same bacteria."

"Then we will compare the same genome sequencing of the bacteria with the samples we took from the targeted butcher shops," she explained.

"E. coli bacteria are found everywhere. Every individual even has them in their intestines. The difficulty is that there are E. coli bacteria that are said to be pathogenic" and that cause poisoning, the prosecutor added.

She did not rule out other cases if people defrost and consume previously purchased meat, specifying that the time "for symptoms to develop and appear is between 10 and 15 days."

The prosecutor stressed that the last two cases were linked to "secondary contamination, through the hands. That is to say, an infected person had to (...) leave the toilet without washing their hands properly, and hold the hands of another person who would then be contaminated."