4 Jun 11 11:51 CET
German health authorities scrambling to find the source of a deadly E. coli outbreak are zeroing in on a restaurant in Lübeck. According to a media report, 17 people sick from the bacteria ate there between May 12 and 14.
Staff from Germany's national disease centre, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), were investigating the situation in Lübeck.
"The restaurant is not at fault, but the supply chain can potentially provide the crucial clue on how the pathogen came into circulation," Werner Solbach, a microbiologist at the university hospital in Lübeck told daily Lübecker Nachrichten.
The paper reported Saturday that a group of Danish visitors ate at the restaurant for lunch. Later on, eight participants fell ill.
During the same period, another group in town for a seminar also ate at the restaurant. The 30 women were members of the Deutsche Steuer-Gewerkschaft tax union and hailed from around Germany.
"So far, we know of eight cases, some of them very serious," Dieter Ondracek, the union's chairman in Berlin, told the paper.
"One woman from North Rhine-Westphalia has died."
Responding to a query from news agency DAPD, a spokesman for the Kiel health ministry confirmed that participants of the seminar had fallen ill following a visit to Lübeck.
Solbach told Lübecker Nachrichten that another serious case appeared to be linked to the restaurant. A child from southern Germany became ill after visiting the restaurant for a family gathering during the same time period.
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