E coli outbreak starts to wane

NEW victims of E coli contamination in Germany have slowed to a trickle, the national disease control centre announced, as the death toll from the outbreak rose by one to 37.

The Robert Koch Institute said a total of 3,235 people in Germany have been reported ill, only seven more than the previous day.

Germany’s health minister has cautioned that even though the outbreak is waning further deaths are possible. The local council in the northern town of Celle said a two-year-old boy died overnight.

Thirty-six people in Germany and one in Sweden have now died in what has been the deadliest outbreak of E coli ever.

German authorities have narrowed the source of the outbreak to beansprouts from a farm in the north of the country.