A PENSIONER has died after contracting the deadly E-Coli bug - as five new cases were reported in East Lancashire.

One involves a child in Burnley who is now recovering after treatment in hospital.

The four other cases are in Blackburn, where a special team of environmental health officers have been probing the cause of the outbreaks for the past fortnight.

They follow two Blackburn outbreaks reported earlier in the summer - one involving a pensioner who subsequently died.

None of the cases appear to be connected - but two concern people who have drunk unpasteurised green top milk, says Health Authority consultant in communicable disease control, Dr Roberta Marshall, who today expressed concern over the "cluster outbreak.

The Burnley case was discovered after tests on a child on September 2.

The youngster was taken to hospital as a precautionary measure and later treated by her GP.

She is understood to be well on the road to recovery.

Burnley environmental health team manager, Karen Davies, said the local outbreak appeared to be isolated.

"We have screened all contacts and interviewed the family and given appropriate hygiene advice. But we have not been able to determine the source." Details of the earlier cases will be revealed to members of Blackburn with Darwen Council's public protection committee when it meets on Wednesday.

Today environmental health manager Mr Thani Nathan said all six cases were "sporadic" and had not been linked.

He added: "Half a dozen officers have spent all their time on the E-Coli issue for the last two weeks.

"There are currently four E Coli 0157 cases in Blackburn, but it is not an outbreak, they are all entirely separate."

Mr Nathan said that one of those affected was a baby and another a 13-year-old. He added: "Officers have made a thorough investigation of all these cases. This has involved taking samples and interviewing members of their families."

According to a report to Wednesday's meeting, experts believe E Coli was a contributing factor in the death of a 69-year-old Blackburn resident reported to the environmental health department on July 30. The source of infection has not been found. An 81-year-old who arrived as a patient at Blackburn's Queen's Park Hospital with the killer bug recovered. Again, the source of infection could not be found.

An outbreak of E. Coli which claimed more than a dozen lives in Scotland heightened concern about the killer bug which was first discovered in 1982.

In December last year, nine people recovered after an outbreak in Pendle, believed to have stemmed from a Gisburn dairy farm.

Mr Nathan said officers would be considering ways of raising awareness of the bug which shows a seasonal increase in July, August and September, by repeating a campaign targeting butchers.

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