In Germany, at least 22 people have recently died from the E. coli pathogen and about 500 people have been admitted to hospital with hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS).
HUS is an infection in the digestive system which produces toxic substances that destroy red blood cells, causing kidney injury.
More than 2000 people have fallen ill, mainly in northern Germany, with symptoms including diarrhoea, fever and vomiting, in the biggest epidemic caused by bacteria in recent decades in Germany.
Prof Krause, who heads the university biochemistry department, said New Zealand's experience with the H1N1 influenza pandemic, which began in Mexico in 2009, showed how swiftly infectious diseases could travel great distances by passenger jet aircraft from apparently far away places.
Some of the first cases of the H1N1 pandemic outside of Mexico had been reported in New Zealand in April 2009, when 10 pupils from an Auckland secondary school experienced influenza symptoms after returning from a language trip to Mexico.
Prof Krause said some New Zealanders who were returning from travel to Germany this month could have contracted the E. coli infection and should contact their doctor if they experienced diarrhoea soon after they arrived.
Unlike influenza, E. coli-related illness was not spread through the air by coughing and sneezing, and often arose from contact with animal or human fecal material, or through eating or drinking contaminated food or drink.
New Zealanders travelling to Germany should maintain good hand-washing hygiene, ensure milk was pasteurised, that meat they were eating was well-cooked and that salads and other uncooked vegetables were thoroughly washed with chlorinated water, he said.
Early suggestions that contaminated cucumbers from Spain were linked to the German outbreak have been shown to be incorrect, but the Spanish cucumber industry has nevertheless suffered huge economic losses, and Russia has suspended vegetable imports from the European Union.
It is now thought German-grown bean sprouts were the most likely cause of the outbreak.
Beansprouts, a common ingredient in salads and stir-frys, have previously been blamed for major health scares.
They were held responsible for a serious outbreak of Salmonella in Britain last year and 17 E.coli-related deaths in Japan in 1996, the Daily Telegraph reported yesterday.
Prof Krause, who also directs the university's Webster Centre for Infectious Diseases, said New Zealand should continue to adopt a vigilant approach to avoid any related illness in this country and any adverse effect on our agriculture.
The apparently unusual nature of some aspects of the latest E. coli outbreak, and the significant economic and health effects it had already produced, had highlighted the need for continuing research on infectious diseases, including in New Zealand, he said.
