FIRST OUTBREAK OF MYSTERY BACTERIA KILLS 18

By Deborah Cole

Berlin- The World Health Organisation warned thursday Europe was seeing the first outbreak of a lethal bacteria, as its death toll climbed to 18 and the first suspected cases were reported in the US.

The WHO advisory came as German and Chinese researchers said they cracked the genetic code of the E.coli strain, which they said in a preliminary analysis was resistant to antibiotics and extremely virulent.

US health officials said Thursday that three people were suspected to have fallen ill from the bacteria after traveling to Germany, where the mystery outbreak has killed 17. Sweden has also reported one victim.

Russia banned vegetable imports from the European Union in response to the scare in a move the bloc slammed as "disproportionate", as Britain reported its first cases of the outbreak and Spain demanded payback for its farmers.

There were contradictory accounts as to whether the strain of E.coli was new, or whether Europe was witnessing the first outbreak of a rare but known type of bacteria that officials believe is carried by raw vegetables.

The outbreak was initially blamed on Spanish cucumbers by German officials who later admitted that they were in the dark of its origin.

"This strain, isolated from caes in the infection outbreak in Germany, has never been seen in an outbreak before, " WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said.

"It has been seen in sporadic cases and is very rare."

But researchers at a German hospital treating patiens felled by the germ sequenced its genome and called it "a new type of E.coli strain" while their chinese partners dubbed it an entirely new, supertoxic E.coli strain.

Authorities have also failed to pinpoint the origin if the Enterohaemorrhagic E.coli (EHEC) that has infected more than 2,000 people, 500 of them with full blown haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), a potentially deadly disease that causes bloody diarrhoea and serious liver damage.