健康英语新闻:German authority says E.coli outbreak is over

BERLIN, July 26 (Xinhua) -- German national disease control center said on Tuesday that the country's deadly E. coli outbreak has been over, as no new case reported in the last three weeks.

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) said the last case related to the E.coli outbreak was reported on July 4.

As a three-week-period would cover the disease's incubation time, diagnosis time and the time for the transfer of a case, this virtually means an end of the outbreak.

"The largest EHEC outbreak is over in Germany," said RKI President Reinhard Burger. "I pay tribute to people who have joined in the great work, making investigation and looking after the patients."

The RKI said Germany would keep watching the deadly EHEC O104: H4 intensively and asked people to pay attention to personal and food hygiene, as individual infection still cannot be ruled out.

This round of outbreak has claimed 52 lives and affected more than 4,000 people since early May.

The source of this disease was first believed to be cucumbers and tomatoes from Spain, and then was locked onto bean sprouts grown in a farm near Hamburg in the state Lower Saxony. Later European authorities said one batch of fenugreek seeds from Egypt was probably the source.