The Huntley High School E. coli outbreak that took place in September 2023 is associated with an ill food worker, according to a report issued by the McHenry County Health Department in Illinois. Investigators interviewed students, food handlers, and teachers. They also tested food items including ready to eat foods. And investigators studied different events held at the school, including Freshmen football game concessions, the high school cafeteria, and the Varsity football team dinner.
A total of 1,526 students and staff were interviewed. Sixteen E. coli cases were identified. All Huntley High School (HHS) cases were students or non-cafeteria staff, and 15 out of the 16 ate at the high school cafeteria on the same day. And all of those 15 patients ate food provided from the cold sandwich station. Two of the students were hospitalized in this outbreak.
One food handler from the high school cafeteria tested positive for STEC 2 but reported never experiencing symptoms.
Stool specimens collected from food handlers confirmed that one Huntley High School food handler was intermittently shedding Shiga Toxin-Producing E. coli (STEC) bacteria. Specimen one was negative, specimen 2 positive, specimen 3 negative, specimen 4 positive, and specimens 5 and 56 were negative. Intermittent shedding can take place with this type of infection. This worker was immediately excluded from work until two consecutive negative specimens were received.
The infected food handler worked at the cold sandwich station providing lettuce and cheese garnishes to the sandwiches, and at the cookie station. The report states that it is likely that the food handler was mildly ill and did not associate the illness with the outbreak investigation.
One curious item is that this outbreak was linked to a mystery nationwide E. coli outbreak by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The report addressed that connection, stating, “However, this does not imply that the source for the multistate outbreak, which is unidentified to date, is the same as for the outbreak at HHS. The multistate outbreak and the outbreak at HHS likely share a common source, with a student or staff member of HHS becoming ill with STEC after exposure to the source of the multistate outbreak at an external location. Once introduced into HHS, STEC was transmitted primarily through the HHS cafeteria.
The study concludes with this statement, “In this illness outbreak, the likeliest scenario is that the infected food handler failed to wash their hands correctly, or thoroughly enough, or frequently enough, which resulted in contamination of either surfaces (trays, utensils food packaging, etc.) or food items at the cold
sub sandwich station and cookie station. This allowed transmission of the pathogen either through contact with contaminated surfaces and/or ready-to-eat food items which acted as fomites.”
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