Japan Officials Give Out Antibiotics

Health officials in south-central Japan abandoned efforts to pinpoint the source of a killer germ in school lunches and took a controversial step Monday to distribute antibiotics to victims of the bacteria.

Researchers failed to detect the 0157 bacteria in about 1,500 food samples from school lunches prepared at several locations and delivered to 92 primary schools in the port city of Sakai, south of Osaka.

Health officials in Sakai started handing out antibiotics to about 200 people who tested positive for the bacteria in “voluntary” health examinations but have shown no symptoms of the infection, the spokesman said. But some experts say that although antibiotics can kill the bacteria, the process could result in the release of toxins the microbe has produced and thereby kill the patient.

The food poisoning epidemic has killed seven people and sickened 9,000, mostly schoolchildren.