E coli HUS Sickens Two Students in Wappingers Falls
Three people have contracted E. coli HUS after eating lettuce supplied by Freshway Foods of Sidney, Oklahoma. Our law firm is representing one of the HUS victims, a student at a student at Daemen College in Amherst, New York.
The other two E. coli HUS victims are students at Wappinger Falls—a 15-year-old and a 17-year-old. The students ate romaine lettuce that had been supplied to the school district by Freshway Foods.
Other Wappingers Falls students were also sickened in this Freshway Foods lettuce E. coli outbreak. They attend Roy C. Ketcham High School, John Jay High School Wappingers Junior High School and Van Wyck Middle School.
The outbreak has sickened people in Michigan (10 confirmed and 3 probable), New York (4 confirmed and 3 probable), Ohio (8 confirmed and 1 probable), and Tennessee (1 confirmed). Among the confirmed and probable cases with reported dates available, illnesses began between April 10, 2010 and April 26, 2010. Infected individuals range in age from 13 years old to 31 years old and the median age is 19 years.
The bacteria responsible for this outbreak is E. coli O145, also referred to as O145 STEC (Shiga toxin-producing E. coli). E. coli O145 is one of several strains of non-O157 STECs. Currently, there are limited public health surveillance data on the occurrence of non-O157 STECs, including E. coli O145; therefore, E. coli O145 may go unreported. Because it is more difficult to identify than E. coli O157, many clinical laboratories do not test for non-O157 STEC infection.
Investigators have found multiple lines of evidence have implicated Freshway Foods romaine lettuce as a source of infection in this outbreak. This evidence includes the identification of the outbreak strain of E. coli O145 from an unopened package of Freshway Foods shredded romaine lettuce provided by the Wappingers Falls school district.
A Freshway Foods recall of lettuce products was issued on May 6. The recalled romaine lettuce products were sold to wholesalers and food service outlets in the following states: Alabama, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. The recalled romaine products were used in restaurants, cafeterias and in-store salad bars and delis for Kroger, Giant Eagle, Ingles Markets, and Marsh stores in the states listed.
For a free consultation with an E. coli lawyer at Pritzker Olsen regarding a Freshway Foods lawsuit, please call 1-888-377-8900 (TOLL FREE) or submit our online consultation form.
