FRANCE HAS recorded its first death since an E.coli outbreak struck the country recently.

Over a dozen people became ill in the south-west of France after contamination from the same strain of the bacteria which killed 48 people in Germany’s outbreak. However, French authorities insisted that the latest outbreak was isolated.

Health officials in Bordeaux said that a 78-year-old woman died earlier this morning after being hospitalised on 24 June with the rare kidney condition caused by the outbreak.

The search for the original source of both outbreaks continues. Originally, German authorities had blamed Spanish cucumbers for the deadly outbreak, but subsequently said it seemed that bean sprouts were to blame.

Last week, European food safety and disease prevention authorities suggested that the contamination had been imported to the EU in seeds from Egypt, adding that “much uncertainty” still exists over the source.

German health authorities recently confirmed its first case of human-transferred E.coli infection. A woman who worked near Frankfurt passed the infection on to 20 people she had prepared food for.

- Additional reporting from the AP