Health Law

Lombard Subway faces 31 cases in Shigella outbreak

By Drew Falkenstein

The Subway restaurant located on Roosevelt Road in Lombard, Illinois is at the epicenter of a major shigella outbreak that began in late February and continued into early March.  Latest reports estimate the number of confirmed cases in the outbreak at around 50, but there are surely many, many more people who have been sickened in the outbreak.  We have been contacted by the families of 31 people who have family members sickened in the outbreak, and are litigating the individual claims of all 31 people.  We have filed two cases thus far, on behalf of the son of Ron and Sarah Bowers, and Barbara Romero.  Tomorrow, we will file suit on behalf of Mike Carpino, another victim of the outbreak. 

The Subway outbreak is an unfortunate set of circumstances.  The nature of the product, and how the finished sandwiches are ultimately produced, with hand-to-food contact with virtually every individual sandwich component, means that there are multiple opportunities for insidious bacteria from an infected worker to contaminate the food.  And without a kill step, there is virtually no way to rid the food of bacteria once it becomes contaminated.

These circumstances have been brought to bear in a big way against the people of Lombard Illinois.  If there are an estimated 50 confirmed illnesses, there are likely hundreds of people who have contracted Shigella but simply have not been confirmed positive by stool test. 

Full post as published by Food Poison Blog on March 15, 2010 (boomark / email).