E. coli O145 Lettuce Came From New York School
New York State produced multiple lines of evidence implicating shredded romaine lettuce from Ohio-based Freshway Foods as the source of infection in the nationally watched outbreak of E. coli O145.
The smoking gun proof that solved the mystery of what was causing E. coli infections in Michigan, Ohio and New York was a bag of unopened shredded romaine lettuce that came from a school associated with the outbreak. The bag itself arrived at New York’s Wadsworth Center laboratory on April 28 as part of a shipment of 150 pounds of lettuce to be studied.
Public health experts at the New York Department of Health and the Dutchess and Erie county health departments suspected lettuce based on their hard work in tracking down patients and finding out what they had eaten and where they had dined before becoming ill. To date, four confirmed and three probable cases of E. coli related to the outbreak have been identified in New York State.
One of those cases is a serious illness contracted by a female freshman student at Daemen College in Amherst. She is represented by food safety law firm Pritzker Olsen, which has been in contact with other victims of this outbreak. All together, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has indicated that 30 cases of diarrheal illness are considered to be part of the outbreak, including 23 that are laboratory-confirmed. One is in Tennessee and the rest are in Ohio and Michigan.
This week, New York officials recounted the steps of their investigation into the Freshway lettuce E. coli outbreak. They didn’t identify the school from which the bag of smoking gun lettuce came from, but it could have been Daemen or the public school district in Wappingers Falls, New York.
Both schools have students who developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) as a result of their E. coli O145 infections; two reportedly at Wappingers Falls. The freshman student at Daemen was hospitalized multiple times for treatment of HUS and she suffered kidney injuries that could affect her the rest of her life.
Pritzker Olsen continues to monitor the public health investigation of this outbreak and conduct its own research. The lettuce recalled by Freshway was shipped to two dozen states east of the of the Mississippi River and the District of Columbia. That means many more people could have been infected by the lettuce borne E. coli without getting a diagnosis.
Lack of Attention for Non-o157 E. coli Types
A major problem with this strain of E. coli is that most places don’t test for it and the federal government has ignored it. Everyone is focused on the most common Shiga toxin-producing E. coli – E. coli O157:H7.
All types of Shiga toxin E. coli bacteria cause diarrhea that is often bloody and accompanied by abdominal cramps. Fever is absent or mild. Symptoms usually appear about three days after exposure but may occur from one to nine days. Most people recover without treatment in five to 10 days, but life-threatening HUS or thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) develop in five to 15 percent of cases.
Not all diarrheal illness is caused by E. coli. However, a health care provider should be consulted immediately if diarrhea is present in children, has lasted more than a day or two in adults, or is bloody. HUS can begin as the diarrhea is improving and can occur in people of any age but is most common in children under 5 years.
If you have legal questions about this outbreak and are seeking a free case consultation with an E. coli lawyer, call Pritzker Olsen at 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or complete our online contact form. Our firm is one of the few that practices extensively in the area of foodborne illness litigation and we have collected millions for victims of food poisoning in all corners of the U.S.
Tags: E coli O145, Freshway Foods Class Action Lawsuit, Freshway Foods Lawsuit
