健康英语新闻:Confirmed E. Coli cases rise to 14 in Denmark

COPENHAGEN, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The number of confirmed E. coli cases has risen to 14 in Denmark, with at least 26 others suspected of having the intestinal infection, the National Serum Institute said Monday.

Seven of the confirmed cases show symptoms of kidney failure which marks an advanced stage of the sickness, the institute said.

"Almost all of the 14 infected people have been in northern Germany recently except just one. There is a 24-year-old man from Jutland. He has not even been to Germany, so he does not quite fit with the rest of the pattern," said Kaare Moelbak, chief physician at the institute. "We do not know yet how he has been so unlucky to get this infection but we assume that it has been a person-to-person transmission, or that he has eaten infected vegetables," he added.

Denmark's Veterinary and Food Administration (DVFA) had advised Danish consumers not to eat raw tomato, lettuce and cucumber from Germany, and cucumber from Spain.

It is now checking Danish cucumbers for traces of E. coli, with results expected on Tuesday.