Five employees at Aetna’s downtown Hartford office are recovering from E. coli and no one knows what caused the outbreak.
The employees became sick within the last three to four weeks and the sleuthing has begun to determine how the employees got sick.
Of the five employees, one was hospitalized, but is expected to be OK.
The most common way to contract E. coli is by eating contaminated food, but health officials do not known if the employees got sick from something they ate from inside the building or at a restaurant outside of work.
City and state health officials are speaking with employees who have been sick to see if there is a common denominator and testing kiosks and cafeterias in the Aetna building.
Aetna officials said they are taking the matter seriously and working with health officials to find the source. The insurance company alerted employees at the Hartford and Middletown offices by e-mail.
Symptoms of E. coli typically begin to show about seven days after a person is infected. The first sign is severe abdominal cramping that starts suddenly. Other symptoms include nausea and diarrhea.
