E. coli, Hus and the Death of a Teenager
Why did Kayla Boner, an athletic 14-year-old girl, die after contracting an E. coli infection and then developing hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) in October? Health officials have not yet found the source of the E. coli infection. According to a story on DesMoinesRegister.com, Kayla’s mother believes it was Totino’s pizza:
At first, she associated Kayla's illness with a recent recall of two pizza brands, Totino's and Jeno's. Kayla ate Totino's pepperoni pizza regularly, Boner said, and she now wonders whether the recalled pizza - which has been associated with E. coli infections in 12 states - is the reason her daughter died.
General Mills recalled about 5 million Totino’s and Jeno’s pizzas on November 1 because several people had contracted E. coli infections after eating the pizzas. The E. coli outbreak linked to Totino’s and Jeno’s pizza is one of several E. coli outbreaks in the last few months. 
Most of the outbreaks have been linked to ground beef products, and over 28 million pounds of ground beef products have been recalled due to possible E. coli contamination. If the genetic fingerprint of the E. coli bacteria that killed Kayla does not match any E. coli bacteria involved in outbreaks linked to ground beef, it is still possible that the source of her E. coli infection was ground beef. Not all ground beef is tested for E. coli, and before Kayla became ill, USDA did not get genetic fingerprints of all ground beef that tested positive for E. coli. Ground beef cannot be ruled out as a source of Kayla’s E. coli infection until another food source is found. For the sake of Kayla’s family and friends, we hope the source is found because they need to know what killed her.