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Cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome increase in E. coli outbreak; first death reported
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As of May 10, 17 people had been diagnosed for hemolytic uremic syndrome after health officials linked an Escherichia coli outbreak in 29 states to tainted romaine lettuce grown in Yuma, Arizona.
The CDC reported 149 people have been infected with the outbreak strain of E. coli O157:H7. The victims range from 1 year to 88 years old, and more than 40 people have been hospitalized. One person has died.
“This is a serious E. coli,” Matthew Wise, PhD, MPH, deputy branch chief for outbreak response at the CDC, said in a conference call with reporters. “Everybody should be concerned, and everybody should be avoiding romaine [lettuce]. This is not a time to be tailoring the message to risk groups. It’s about E. coli and anyone who consumes it can get really sick.”
Of the first 87 patients who became ill, 67 reported eating romaine lettuce in the week before their illness started and 46 have been hospitalized, which officials conceded is a higher than normal hospitalization rate for E. coli.
“The Shiga toxin strain in this outbreak is STX-2 only producing E. coli ... one that tends to cause more severe illness based on the toxin profile it produces,” Wise said.
Officials said romaine lettuce products from a farm in Yuma, Arizona harvested between March 5 and March 16 of this year are the source of the contaminated lettuce that made eight inmates at a prison in Alaska ill. However, there are more than two dozen other farms under investigation as possible parts of this latest outbreak.
“We have not determined where in the supply chain the contamination occurred. We are continuing to examine all possibilities, including that contamination may have occurred along the growing, harvesting, packaging and distribution chain before reaching the Alaskan correctional facility,” Stic Harris, DVM, MPH, director of the FDA’s Coordinated Outbreak Response and Evaluation Network, said during the call. “We are investigating dozens of other sources of the chopped romaine lettuce.” – by Janel Miller and Mark Neumann