Important Information concerning EHEC

Dear Patients and Friends of Naturklinik,

We have received inquiries by concerned patients, especially from abroad, and would like to give you some information on EHEC, a disease-causing bacterium which has caused illness in several people in Germany, some quite severe, during the last few weeks. Symptoms include watery diarrhea and abdominal pain, and some patients develop fever. Sometimes hemorrhagic diarrhea can occur.

What is EHEC?

EHEC is short for enterohemorrhagic Escherischia coli. Normally, the majority of the many forms of E. coli are very important and necessary intestinal bacteria being co-responsible for good digestion and a healthy immune system. However some forms of E. coli are pathogenic and one of them is EHEC.

The typical reservoir of EHEC are ruminants, especially cows. EHEC is transmitted through the consumption of raw, undercooked or not thoroughly fried meat and sausages, raw milk, and salad, fruit and vegetables which have been fertilized with slurry and manure. This is why the experts say the most important thing is food hygiene, which involves cooking foodstuff at least two minutes at a temperature of 70° C and washing foodstuff and your hands thoroughly.

However, since transmission is via meat, sausages or fruit and vegetables fertilized with slurry and manure, an even better protection is a vegetarian diet and eating fruit and vegetables which have not been fertilized with slurry and manure.

At HG Naturklinik, we have offered a vegetarian cuisine from day one, meaning a transmission through meat and sausages is excluded. What is more, we have always taken care to use foodstuffs not fertilized with slurry or manure. Through this, together with preparation of foods according to the hygienic standards outlined above, there is no danger of EHEC infection at HG Naturklinik.

For many years, the people at HG Naturklinik have taken a stand for abolishing factory farming, which is the primary source of unspeakable suffering for animals and also the root of many health problems. We have done this through lectures, books, TV programs and newspaper and magazine articles. With the EHEC infections, it becomes particularly clear how important our commitment to nature and the animals has been and continues to be.

As our patients, you feel the immediate benefits of this – by way of our vegetarian cuisine and foodstuffs from Peaceable Cultivation without the use of slurry and manure.

Warm greetings from the HG Naturklinik team at the House of Health in Spessart!