E.coli death toll now 36 - Germany

June 13, 2011

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From: AAP

June 14, 2011 1:18AM

THE death toll from a killer bacteria outbreak rose to 36 yesterday, German

health officials said, one day after warning that more fatalities cannot be

ruled out.

The Koch Institute (RKI), Germany's national disease agency, said 3228

people had fallen sick from the virulent EHEC (enterohaemorrhagic E. coli) or

the linked kidney ailment haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS).

On Sunday, German officials said 34 people had died in the country, but upped

that figure to 35 yesterday.

A woman who had travelled to Germany also previously died in Sweden.

" For many days the number of new infections from EHEC or HUS communicated to the

RKI has declined in the country, " the agency said in a statement that confirmed

the new toll.

German Health Minister Bahr told Sunday's Bild am Sonntag newspaper that

he was encouraged by the decline in new infections, but warned that more deaths

were still possible.

Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment said on Sunday the outbreak is

the most serious of its kind recorded in the world to date.

After several frantic weeks of searching, German authorities on Friday said they

had identified the contamination source as being vegetable sprouts from an

organic farm in Lower Saxony, northern Germany.

The farm has been closed and all its products recalled. The farm cultivated

sprouts from a variety of products including lettuce, azuki beans, mung beans,

fenugreek, alfalfa and lentils.

Authorities have said though that the farm in the northern village of

Bienenbuettel had done nothing wrong.

With German authorities only late last week dropping advice, particularly in

northern Germany, to avoid uncooked tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce, the scare

has cost European farmers hundreds of millions of euros.

The RKI still recommends not eating raw vegetable sprouts.

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