United States

CDC Investigating E.coli Outbreak in 13 States, Including Connecticut

State and local public health officials are interviewing sick people to determine what they ate in the week before their illness started

The CDC is investigating a multistate E.coli outbreak in 13 states, including Connecticut, and the agency is looking into whether it’s connected to an outbreak in Canada that’s believed to be linked to romaine lettuce.

There have been 17 illnesses linked to the outbreak of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli O157:H7 infections, including two in Connecticut, two in New Hampshire, three in California and one each in New York, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Nebraska, Virginia and Washington.

The Illnesses started between Nov. 15 and Dec. 8, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Public Health Agency of Canada also is investigating an outbreak of STEC O157:H7 infections in several provinces.

Whole genome sequencing is being performed on samples of bacteria making people sick in the United States, preliminary results show that the type of E. coli making people sick in both countries is closely related genetically, according to the CDC.

The Public Health Agency of Canada has identified romaine lettuce as the source of the outbreak in Canada.

In the United States, state and local public health officials are interviewing sick people to determine what they ate in the week before their illness started.

CDC is still collecting information to determine whether there is a food item in common among sick people, including leafy greens and romaine.

At this point, the CDC is unable to recommend whether U.S. residents should avoid a particular food and said the investigation is ongoing, and more information will be released as it becomes available.

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