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Despite complaints from Europeans, Russia will keep intact its ban on vegetables from the European Union because of the outbreak of a rare strain of E. coli, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Friday.

The European Union has told Russia that the ban contradicts the spirit of the World Trade Organization.

"We can't poison our people for the sake of some spirit," Putin retorted.

The E. coli infection has spread to 12 countries and is blamed for at least 18 deaths -- all but one reported in Germany. About 1,800 others have been sickened.

There have been 552 cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) -- a form of kidney failure -- in the current European outbreak, according to the World Health Organization. That's more cases of HUS than in any other outbreak ever worldwide, according to an official at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Two women and a man who traveled last month to northern Germany remain hospitalized in the United States with HUS, said Chris Braden of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A fourth person developed bloody diarrhea, but was not hospitalized, he added.

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