The Robert Koch Institute is the German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 federal institution responsible for disease control and prevention. It is located in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 and Wernigerode

Wernigerode

Wernigerode is a town in the district of Harz, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Until 2007, it was the capital of the district of Wernigerode. Its population was 35,500 in 1999....

 and is part of the Federal Ministry of Health

Federal Ministry of Health (Germany)

The Federal Ministry of Health, is a ministry of the German federal government...

.

History

The Institute was formed by Robert Koch

Robert Koch

Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch was a German physician. He became famous for isolating Bacillus anthracis , the Tuberculosis bacillus and the Vibrio cholerae and for his development of Koch's postulates....

 in 1891 as The Royal Prussian Institute for Infectious Diseases. The director from 1917-1933 was Fred Neufeld

Fred Neufeld

Fred Neufeld was a physician and bacteriologist who discovered the pneumococcal types. This discovery led Fred Griffith to show that one pneumococcal type could be transformed into another . Subsequently, Oswald Avery demonstrated that the transforming substance was DNA...

 who discovered the pneumococcal types.

Operations

The Institute prepares a report on cancer

Cancer

Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...

 in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 every two years. The institute also plays a role in advising the German government on outbreaks, such as the 2009 swine flu outbreak.

2011 E. coli outbreak

Reinhard Burger, president of the Institute, said the pattern of the 2011 E. coli outbreak had produced enough evidence to draw the conclusion that German vegetable sprouts caused the outbreak (that has killed 31 and sickened nearly 3,100) even though no tests on sprouts from an organic farm in Lower Saxony, Germany had come back positive for the E. coli strain behind the outbreak.