Health Law

21 sickened in Arizona and Colorado alone in cheese E. coli outbreak

By Drew Falkenstein

One notable feature of the cheese E. coli O157:H7 outbreak that has sickened at least 25 in five southwestern states is that the strain of E. coli involved has never been seen before in the Pulsenet database, which is the national repository for DNA information used to track outbreaks of foodborne disease.  Thus, there should be little quesiton whether people who test positive for this unique strain are part of the outbreak.

Arizona and Colorado lead the case-count in the outbreak with 11 and 8 ill in those states respectively.  Courtesy of the Marler Clark law firm's www.outbreakdatabase.com, here is a list of E. coli O157:H7 outbreaks that have sickened residents of those states before:

Arizona:

1. Nestle E. coli O157:H7 outbreak linked to raw cookie dough (2009)
2. United Food Group E. coli O157:H7 outbreak linked to ground beef (2007)
3. Dole baby spinach E. coli O157:H7 outbreak (2006)
4. Arizona petting zoo E. coli O157:H7 outbreak (2005)

Colorado:

1. United Food Group E. coli O157:H7 outbreak linked to ground beef (2007)
2. Dole baby spinach E. coli O157:H7 outbreak (2006)
3. Quantum Foods and Applebee's E. coli O157:H7 outbreak linked to beef (2004)
4. ConAgra ground beef E. coli O157:H7 outbreak (2002)
5. Jimmy John's and Sprouts Extraordinaire E. coli O157:NM outbreak (2008)
6. Bison meat E. coli O157:H7 outbreak (2010)
7. Billy Goat Dairy E. coli O157:H7 outbreak linked to raw milk (2010)

Full post as published by Food Poison Blog on November 06, 2010 (boomark / email).