AN OUTBREAK of food poisoning in Scotland claimed its fifth victim yesterday and caused more than 100 people to fall ill, the Scottish Office announced.
"This has to be regarded as a serious outbreak," said Scotland's chief medical officer, Sir David Carter. "Hopefully the expectation here is that we should have seen the peak of the outburst."
There were reports that another victim, a 60 year old woman, had died in Glasgow late yesterday. This was later said to be incorrect.
Earlier, a 71 year old woman died in hospital in Strathclyde. This followed the deaths of a 69 year old man and a 79 year old woman in Wishaw, south west of Edinburgh. On Tuesday, an 80 year old man and an elderly woman died.
Meanwhile, a three year old boy and a seven year old girl, admitted to a hospital in Glasgow, were placed on renal dialysis yesterday. One victim was said to be in a critical condition.
The food poisoning has been blamed on the bacteria E coli 1057, identified for the first time in Britain in 1982. It is found in animal intestines and transmitted through uncooked meat, milk and cheese.
Symptoms of food poisoning from the E coli bug can be mild, but can include severe diarrhoea with blood, and stomach pains.
Of the 107 people who have fallen ill since the weekend, 62 have been confirmed as suffering from the effects of the bacteria. Thirty nine of the sufferers were in hospital yesterday.
Among food outlets being investigated are a butcher shop in Wishaw and three Co op stores in Bonnybridge, where health officials last night urged customers not to eat roast beef, cooked gammon or roast pork bought recently from those stores. But the precise source of the bacteria has yet to be traced, officials said.
Dr Syed Ahmed, Consultant in Public Health Medicine for Lanarkshire Health Board, warned: "We certainly hope the number of cases will go down, but I think it is going to get worse before it gets better.
"As far as the fatalities are concerned I think it is difficult to know if there will be more.
E coli 1057 is known to Americans as the "hamburger bug" from the possibility of it spreading in processed meat. In 1993, in the United States 700 people were infected by the same bacteria, which was traced back to a fast food chain in Seattle, Washington. Four people died and 178 suffered permanent kidney damage.