The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has announced that one of the two new E. coli O157:H7 outbreaks is associated with a restaurant. This deadly outbreak, which has sickened twenty-one people in eight states and killed one person from Michigan, is caused by a pathogen that is closely related to the 2018 E. coli O157:H7 outbreak linked to romaine lettuce that sickened 210 people in 36 states.
Patients sickened in this outbreak live in California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Utah, and Wisconsin.
The outbreak notice states, “Several ill people have been identified as part of an illness cluster at a restaurant. An illness cluster is defined as two or more people from different households who report eating at the same restaurant location, attending a common event, or purchasing food at the same grocery store in the week before becoming ill. Investigating illness clusters can provide critical clues about the source of an outbreak. If several unrelated ill people ate or shopped at the same location of a restaurant or store within several days of each other, it suggests that the contaminated food item was served or sold there.”
In the past, E. coli outbreaks linked to restaurants have included the chains Chipotle, which had two E. coli O26 outbreaks in 2015, and Jimmy John’s, which also had an E. coli O26 outbreak that was linked to clover sprouts in 2012. In fact, according to a 2014 study, people are twice as likely to get sick after eating at restaurants as they are from food prepared at home.
The government is quick to say, however, that food linked to a previous outbreak is not enough to prove a link in another outbreak, even with the same strain of pathogen. Different foods can, and often are, contaminated by the same bacteria.
Traceback, sampling, farm inspections, and interviews are continuing in this outbreak. What we know now is that a specific food item hasn’t been identified and the CDC is not advising people to avoid any one food at this time.
If you or a loved one have been sickened with a Salmonella infection after eating recalled precut melons, please contact our experienced attorneys for help at 1-888-377-8900 or 612-338-0202.
What restaurant?????
The government doesn’t say.