France records first E. coli death

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Eric Garcia

Washington Bureau Chief

Authorities have recorded the first death in France's E. coli outbreak. Dr. Benoit Vendrely at Bordeaux Hospital in southwest France said the 78-year-old woman died early this morning.

She had been hospitalized in Bordeaux since June 24 with hemolytic uremic syndrome — the rare kidney condition that the most seriously ill victims of the outbreak are suffering from.

Vendrely said the strain of E.coli the woman was infected with was not the one implicated in the deaths of 48 people in Germany and one each in the United States and Sweden. He didn't identify the source of the French woman's E. coli contamination.

Seven other patients remain at the same French hospital, six of whom have been confirmed to have the same strain of E.coli as in the outbreak that originated in Germany. European health experts said Thursday that contaminated Egyptian fenugreek seeds were likely the source of that deadly outbreak.