Death toll in E coli outbreak rises to 40

GERMANY'S disease control centre yesterday said that 40 people have now died in the country's E coli outbreak.

However, the number of new cases has remained at a low level for more than ten days.

The Robert Koch Institute said 3,494 people in Germany had been reported ill, including 810 suffering from a serious complication that can lead to kidney failure.

That is 86 more cases and one more death than the last set of figures that were released on Friday - although the rise is largely due to delays in notification.

The World Health Organisation said in a statement that the last reported onset of diarrhoea in an E coli case was on 13 June.

Some 109 cases have been reported in 13 other European nations, the United States and Canada.

The source of the bacteria has been traced to an organic vegetable sprout farm in northern Germany, after Spanish cucumbers were wrongly blamed.