E. coli Trailed from Yuma to Wappingers Falls
Wappingers Falls, New York, is near Poughkeepsie in Dutchess County — thousands of miles away from a farm in Yuma, Arizona, where a lettuce harvest triggered a multi-state outbreak of E. coli O145 that public health officials continue to study.
The winter lettuce from Arizona was processed by Ohio-based Freshway Foods and distributed to wholesalers and institutions in 23 states and the District of Columbia. But the outbreak has been centered around college campuses in Columbus, Ohio; Ann Arbor, Michigan; and Amherst, New York.
In addition, middle and high school students at four schools in Wappingers Falls and nearby Hopewell Junction were sickened. In fact, of 30 total illnesses considered part of the outbreak in the latest CDC report, two of the worst illnesses were suffered by a 15-year-old and 17-year-old in this New York enclave.
The two students suffered hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a life-threatening disease that strikes in five to 15 percent of E. coli infections. Fortunately, no deaths have occurred. HUS is the leading cause of kidney failure in children worldwide, but it carries many other dangers ranging from brain stem injury to paralysis, coma, heart damage and central nervous system disorder.
So far, just one other victim of the Freshway Foods lettuce E. coli outbreak is reported to have suffered HUS. She is a freshman at Daemen College in Amherst, New York, and she has retained food safety law firm Pritzker Olsen to represent her in litigation for recoveries.
Fred Pritzker, founder and president of Pritzker Olsen, has monitored this E. coli O145 lettuce outbreak since it was first rumored in late April. His firm is conducting its own investigation of what caused the contamination and continues to be in contact with victims and public health officials investigating the outbreak.
Currently, the Food and Drug Administration is working closely with New York and other states to determine where in the distribution chain the point of contamination likely occurred. Public health and agriculture officials in Michigan, New York, Ohio, and Tennessee, along with CDC, are actively engaged in the investigation and are expected to publish more information as it becomes available.
The last lengthy update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention came on May 12.
