Lessons cited as Germany declares end to E coli outbreak - by Lisa Schnirring

Germany's infectious disease institute has declared that the Escherichia coli O104:H4 outbreak is over, now that the incubation period for the most recently confirmed case with links to the sprout seed–related event has passed.

The Robert Koch Institute, the county's federal disease control agency, released a statement in German yesterday saying that the 3-week incubation period had passed since the latest illness onset date—July 4—for a patient with an epidemiologic link to the outbreak, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said today in its outbreak update. The agency said German officials are considering cases with onsets later than Jul 4 as having no epidemiologic links to the outbreak or no lab confirmation. 

Because of reporting delays, additional cases are still slowly trickling into the ECDC. Health officials are also still sorting out confirmed and probable cases. So far the ECDC has received reports of 3,910 infections, including 782 with hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a serious kidney complication. So far 46 deaths have been reported. 

For more: CIDRAP >> Lessons cited as Germany declares end to <i>E coli</i> outbreak