E. coli O145 Outbreak Tied to R.V. Toilet Dumping
The first produce-associated E. coli O145 outbreak identified in the United States occurred last year when 33 people in five states were sickened after eating Freshway Foods shredded romaine lettuce processed in Ohio. It also was the first foodborne illness outbreak associated with produce grown in the area around Yuma, Arizona.
For those reasons, the FDA chose the outbreak for a postmortem environmental assessment in hopes of tracing exactly where in the supply chain the romaine became contaminated. The answer? The likely cause was human waste emptied from RVs at an RV park adjacent to an irrigation canal. The E. coli-contaminated canal was used to water four farm fields where the romaine was grown and picked.
The recently published FDA findings coincide with final-phase E. coli lawsuit work conducted by national food safety law firm PritzkerOlsen, P.A. Ohio-based Freshway was implicated early on in this outbreak and conducted a romaine recall. When the investigation of the plant failed to determine how the lettuce became contaminated, FDA’s researchers turned to the farm fields in Wellton, Arizona, where the produce was grown. Those sickened in the outbreak were from Ohio, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.
E. coli O145 is similar to the more prevalent E. coli O157:H7 in that it is an enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) and a Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC). It is the Shiga toxins that can cause serious injury or death, usually in part with hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), the leading cause of kidney failure in children worldwide. HUS. E. coli O145 is part of a group of E. coli serotypes called non-O157 STEC.
According to FDA documents obtained by law firm PritzkerOlsen, the R.V. park is located on a knoll directly above the lateral irrigation canal that supplies water to the suspect fields. The R.V. park is serviced by eight on-site septic leach systems. The FDA investigation found evidence of drainage from the R.V. park directly into the irrigation canal. No outbreak strains of E. coli O145 were found, but two drag swabs and one mud sample found non-O157 STEC Shiga toxin 2 (Stx2)-producing E. coli. Investigators noted that a water pump and hose at this location could be used by R.V. owers to empty and rinse their toilet tanks.
“We determined that the R.V. park is a reasonably likely potential source of the outbreak pathogen,” the report said.
This outbreak hit hard on several school campuses and PritzkerOlsen is representing a woman whose freshman studies were abruptly interrupted at Daemen College in Amherst, New York, when she became infected and seriously ill after eating contaminated lettuce. PritzkerOlsen is one of the very few law firms in the country practicing extensively in the area of foodborne illness litigation and its attorneys have collected tens of millions of dollars for victims of food poisoning. A lawyer is always available to answer legal questions about an E. coli death or illness at 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or communication can be started with our online contact form.
Prevention is Key to Fighting Non-O157 STECs
The under secretary for food safety at USDA stressed the need for preventative programs and policies to stop the spread of non-O157 types of shiga-toxin E. coli (STEC). Dr. Elisabeth Hagen didn’t get specific in her address to a food safety conference in Washington, D.C., held by the Pew Charitable Trusts and Center for Science in the Public Interest, but she was resolute in saying prevention of these pathogens is attainable.
“We can prevent it. It should not be a fact of life that people will get sick from or die from the food they eat. American consumers should not expect, nor accept that,” Dr. Hagen told the conference.
She said USDA has been more focused on stopping E. coli O157:H7, the primary type of shiga toxin-producing E. coli. The agency’s most aggressive act to prevent E. coli O157:H7 was to ban it from ground beef after a 1993 hamburger outbreak resulted in four child deaths and sickened 400 other people. It is therefore considered an adulterant in ground beef and testing is required by manufacturers and by USDA inspectors on a sample basis.
Since then there has been a growing realization that non-O157 STECs are just as powerful and hazardous to human health. The six most prevalent non-O157 STECs are O26, O103, O111, O121, O45, and O145. According to CDC, these pathogens cause an estimated 36,700 illnesses, 1,100 hospitalizations and 30 deaths in the U.S. each year. And currently, they’re not explicitly addressed by policies at USDA, the government regulator of meat and other foods.
“In order to be a truly prevention-based food safety system, we need to stay one step ahead of these threats,” Dr. Hagen said. ” We should not wait for a public health emergency to force our hand to address the range of E. coli threats in ground beef that exist in 2011.”
“We can’t wait for a historic outbreak, from these and other foodborne pathogens, before we take steps to improve our protection of public health. We’re striving to be a prevention-based system.”
She told the conference that prevention isn’t just one person or group’s responsibility; it’s a shared one. It’s shared among producers, government and the food service industry at large. Also, there are steps that consumers can take to supplement these systematic efforts to prevent foodborne illness and USDA already has programs in place for consumer food safety awareness. Click here for a copy of the undersecretary’s remarks on non-O157 STECs and antibiotic-resistant pathogens.
Non-0157 E. coli Testing Initiative Moving Along
The USDA is getting closer to testing for the six most common non-0157 shiga toxin E. coli types, said an official from the agency’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). Dan Engeljohn, chief policy writers for FSIS, told an industry convention that the regulator currently is driving the development of validated testing to identify the six most commonly occurring shiga toxin E. coli types that currently are not screened. Engeljohn said that FSIS is almost there.
“We have that test validated for four of the six non-O157 STECS. We’re very close to having a methodology for all six,” Engeljohn was quoted as saying by Meantingplace.com. “Your expectation should be that a federal register notice would identify a rationale as to how the agency believes it could and should move forward with an enforcement strategy.”
Engeljohn told Meatingplace.com there will be public meetings and issue guidance. Implementation would be slow because the agency is not yet ready to conduct full-scale testing, and the industry should expect FSIS to initially focus on trim for ground beef, he said.
E. coli lawyers at PritzkerOlsen, P.A., have been calling for this change for years to fill a deadly dangerous gap in food safety rules. While E. coli 0157:H7 is banned by the government in ground beef — a law that requires meatpackers to test for the pathogen — other types of E. coli that produce equally lethal shiga toxins inside the human body are currently exempt from testing and are not legally defined as adulterants in ground beef.
According to Dr. Patricia Griffin, an E. coli expert at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 70 percent of non-O157 E. coli types isolated from humans fall into six serogroups, which are (in order of frequency): O26, O103, O111, O121, O45, and O145. The CDC estimates that in the United States about half the diarrheal illnesses caused by shiga toxin-producing E. coli bacteria are due to O157 and about half to the other subtypes of toxic E. coli. Contaminated ground beef continues to be the biggest cause for these E. coli infections.
Whatever the type, if a bacterium is making shiga toxins in the gastrointestinal tract of an infected individual, that person is at risk for developing hemolytic uremic syndrome HUS or thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP). PritzkerOlsen represents HUS TTP victims in E. coli outbreaks and has been doing so for many years. If laws are changed to add non-0157 types of shiga toxin-producing E. coli to the list of adulterants in ground beef, American consumers will win stronger protection in their efforts to recover monetarily from the harms they suffer. But more importantly, screening for additional types of E. coli will reduce the prevalence of these dangerous pathogens from our food supply and make food — especially ground beef — safer for everyone.
The change is long overdue and eagerly anticipated.
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.
Lettuce E. coli Lawsuits Certain to Result From Freshway Foods Shredded Romaine Outbreak
Lettuce E. coli lawsuits are certain to result from an outbreak of E. coli O145 tied by public health investigation to Freshway Foods of Sidney, Ohio.
National food safety law firm Pritzker Olsen is conducting its own research on the outbreak and has been in contact with potential victims.
The outbreak has taken a toll on students in schools and on college campuses in Ohio, Michigan and New York. These institutions are Ohio State University in Columbus, University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Daemen College in Amherst, New York; and public schools in Wappingers Falls, New York.
Shredded Romaine lettuce from Freshway is the implicated source of infection in this outbreak according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “Multiple lines of evidence” support the finding, including a positive test for E. coli in a previously unopened package of shredded romaine obtained from a “facility” associated with the outbreak.
The CDC said DNA testing to confirm the link to ill persons is pending at this time. Meanwhile, Freshway Foods has issued a lettuce recall as a result of the evidence obtained to date. The products were sold in 23 states and Washington, D.C., to foodservice accounts including cafeterias, delis, restaurants, grocery store salad bars and institutions.
The latest CDC update on the lettuce E. coli outbreak counts 19 confirmed victims and 10 probable since March 1. Three victims developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a potentially deadly disease that commonly shuts down a person’s kidneys but also can invade further to cause brain injury, paralysis, heart problems, coma, stroke and nervous system disorders.
In Wappingers Falls, School District Superintendent James Parla told the Poughkeepsie Journal that there were two confirmed cases of E. coli, three probable cases and one suspected case. The students go to Roy C. Ketcham High School, John Jay High School, Wappingers Junior High School and Van Wyck Middle School.
The investigation into the Freshway Foods E. coli outbreak is continuing and it includes a focus on a farm in Yuma, Arizona, where investigators believe the tainted romaine may have originated. The Associated Press quoted Laura Oxley, a spokeswoman for the Arizona agriculture and health departments, who said there were no additional shipments to stop because it is the end of the winter lettuce season in the state.
To contact an E. coli attorney at Pritzker Olsen, call 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or complete our online contact form. We will provide a free case consultation and answer legal questions you may have about this outbreak.
Our firm is one of the few in the country practicing extensively in the area of foodborne illness litigation and we have collected millions for victims of food poisoning. We are involved in practically every major outbreak of food poisoning as an advocate for victims.
