EU Offers To Send Experts To Germany To Help In E.Coli Investigation
By KUNA
EU Health Commissioner John Dalli said Saturday that he is ready to send health and food experts to assist German authorities in the ongoing investigations to speed up the identification of the source of the deadly strain E. Coli.
“The ongoing investigations to identify the source of the E. Coli outbreak in Germany and the latest public health developments are subject to ongoing contacts between the Commission and the German authorities, ” he said in a statement.
The strain has killed 17 people in Germany and one in Sweden and the number of people infected has reached 1,836 a vast majority of them in German and some in other European countries.
The E. Coli strain is said to have spread via contaminated raw cucumbers or tomatoes.
Dalli said he held discussions over the past few days with the German Federal Ministers responsible for Agriculture and Public Health and agreed on the importance of information sharing and on further intensifying efforts to identify the source of contamination.
He also stressed that any measures such as bans concerning imports of EU vegetables “remain disproportionate.”
Russia has banned all fresh vegetable imports from EU countries after the outbreak of E.Coli.
Meanwhile, EU health ministers will discuss the subject during their meeting in Luxembourg on Monday.
