E. Coli Outbreak Spreads To Hiroshima

Dozens of people were sickened in a new food poisoning outbreak Saturday, and the death of an elderly woman raised the death toll from Japan’s E. coli bacteria epidemic to nine.

The fresh outbreak in Hiroshima affected 42 people attending the Japan Esperanto Congress. They complained of vomiting and diarrhea, Kyodo News reported. Thirteen of them were hospitalized.

Local officials in Hiroshima said the new cases were not caused by the O157 strain of E. coli bacteria that has sickened 9,000 people nationwide, though they did not specify what else might have prompted the outbreak, according to the Kyodo report.

The woman’s death - and that of a 1-year-old girl outside Tokyo on Friday - have confounded officials.

Authorities suspect tainted radish sprouts served in school lunches and a retirement home are to blame for the epidemic. But neither of the latest victims ate at places where the sprouts are believed to have been served, and no one in their families was infected.