Should We Worry about the European E. Coli Outbreak?

Health officials are asking recent visitors to Germany to report gastrointestinal symptoms to their doctors as soon as possible. They're telling doctors and their patients not to treat symptoms of E. coli infection with antibiotics, which could make things worse. Vegetables are not imported from Europe to the United States, so there's no reason for panic here, but there's one surefire way to protect yourself: cook your vegetables. On our rebroadcast of today's To the Point, illegal drugs, public health and public safety.

Banner image: A farmer drives a tractor over 100,00 heads of romaine, iceberg and ten other types of lettuce in order to mulch them back into the ground at one of his fields on June 4, 2011 near Hamburg, Germany. Vegetable farmers in northern Germany are facing a crisis as public reaction to the current enterohemorrhagic E. coli outbreak has brought vegetable sales to a near halt. Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty Images