Lettuce E. coli Found at Wappingers Falls Schools in New York
Several school students in Wappingers Falls, New York, are believed to be among those sickened in the E. coli O145 outbreak linked to Freshway Foods shredded Romaine lettuce.
District Superintendent James Parla told the Poughkeepsie Journal that there were two confirmed cases of E. coli, three probable cases and one suspected case. The students go to Roy C. Ketcham High School, John Jay High School, Wappingers Junior High School and Van Wyck Middle School.
Michael Caldwell, the Dutchess County health commissioner, said an initial stool sample from one of the children who was sick seemed to link it to the larger outbreak. In addition, a Freshway Foods lettuce sample from the school tested positive for E. coli.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Freshway Foods lettuce E. coli outbreak currently involves 19 confirmed illnesses and 10 probable illnesses in New York, Ohio and Michigan since March 1. Three of the victims have suffered life-threatening hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) and investigators believe the contaminated lettuce originated on a farm in Yuma, Arizona at the end of the winter lettuce season.
The bacterium in this outbreak is E. coli O145 -- which often goes undetected because testing for this type of E. coli is not widely practiced. It is one of the six most common non-O157 types of E. coli and emits the same powerful and destructive toxin -- Shiga toxin -- that comes from E. coli O157:H7.
The problem at Wappingers Falls started last month when several school children reported diarrheal illness. Previously it was known that students from Ohio State University, University of Michigan and Daemen College of Amherst, New York, were involved in the outbreak.
The link to shredded lettuce was announced Thursday when Sidney, Ohio,-based Freshway Foods announced a recall of Romaine lettuce in 23 states and Washington, D.C. A New York state laboratory in Albany found the outbreak strain of E. coli O145 in a previously unopened bag of shredded Romaine lettuce from Freshway Foods that had been sold to a foodservice establishment where at least one person is believed to have gotten sick.
If you or a loved one have been sickened in this outbreak, contact law firm Pritzker Olsen for free answers to your legal questions at 1-888-377-8900. For a free consultation online, complete the contact form on the side of this Web page.
Pritzker Olsen is a national leader in foodborne illness litigation and we have collected tens of millions of dollars for victims of food poisoning over the years. We are involved in practically every major outbreak of foodborne illness representing victims.
In the Freshway Foods case, we have been in contact with public health professionals who are working on the outbreak. In addition, we are conducting our own investigation to determine how potentially deadly disease-causing organisms made their way to people's food trays in an undeniable cluster.
Note to consumers: This outbreak is apparently not related to packaged Romaine lettuce sold in grocery aisles. It was distributed to foodservice accounts including cafeterias, delis, restaurants and grab-and-go salad bars inside grocery stores. The recall involves Freshway Foods lettuce marked with a sell-by date of May 12 and sold under the Freshway brand or the Imperial Sysco brand.
