OT: Yo Quiero Taco Bell E. Coli Outbreak now in 7 States, 84 Sick, 35 Hospitalized
mike...@comic.com
POSTED: 10:22 a.m. EST, December 8, 2006
2006
Story Highlights· NEW: Outbreak now in seven states; Utah, South
Carolina latest additions
· NEW: Investigators focusing on Taco Bell, CDC says
·At least 35 hospitalized; one lawsuit has been filed
>From Caleb Silver
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NEW YORK (CNN) -- As many as 84 people in seven states have been
confirmed as having the strain of E. coli bacteria involved in an
outbreak that may be linked to Taco Bell restaurants, officials said
Friday.
South Carolina and Utah are the latest states to report outbreaks of
the illness. State and federal agencies are still trying to pin down
the source, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the
vast majority of the reported cases have eaten at Taco Bell restaurants
prior to their illness.
Dr. Greg Braden of the CDC told CNN that his agency and state health
departments have not seen any other sources of the illness and are
zeroing in on Taco Bell and its suppliers of green onions.
"We have some leads to say that it might be green onions, and that's
based upon some preliminary testing that's been done in a number of
laboratories right now, but the testing has not been confirmed, so
we're keeping the options open, and the investigations that we're doing
will be covering a wide range of foods, all of them served at Taco Bell
specifically," Braden said.
On a voice recording for consumers looking for more information on E.
coli, Taco Bell says, "Many of the people who reported becoming ill did
not eat at Taco Bell."
Representatives for the company could not be reached Friday to confirm
the number of cases that had been directly linked to food served at its
restaurants.
On Wednesday, Taco Bell said it had ordered the removal of all green
onions from its 5,800 outlets nationwide, after three samples tested by
an independent laboratory were found to be positive for E. coli.
Food suppliers in focus
New Jersey health officials have focused attention on a food
distribution warehouse in Burlington, and urged all Taco Bell locations
that received shipments from there to "discard all current food
supplies and clean and sanitize their facilities." Taco Bell would not
confirm that the warehouse, operated by McLane Foodservice Inc., was
being investigated.
Ready Pac, a food distribution company that supplies Taco Bell's
Northeast operations through a processing plant in Florence, New
Jersey, says it stopped producing and shipping green onions to the
restaurant's franchises on Wednesday following reports of the outbreak.
The company said in a statement that it is working with regulatory
agencies and industry experts to determine the source of the bacteria.
Boskovich Farms in Oxnard, California, is a main provider of green
onions to Taco Bell, but the company says it has not been contacted by
the FDA or any government agencies although it is aware of the E. coli
outbreak. The company said in a statement that it is working closely
with Taco Bell and Ready Pac to pinpoint the source of the bacteria.
E. coli cases -- first reported November 29 in New Jersey, followed by
others in New York and Pennsylvania -- now have appeared in Delaware,
Connecticut, South Carolina and Utah, according to the CDC. Interviews
with the victims showed that most of the first 58 people who became ill
had eaten at Taco Bells.
As of Thursday, the FDA said at least 35 people have been hospitalized
with the same E. coli strain since the outbreak, some in serious
condition.
At least one lawsuit relating to the outbreak has been filed against
Taco Bell. The lawsuit was filed late Wednesday by the family of an
11-year-old Long Island, New York, boy, Tyler Vormittag. It claims the
boy contracted E. coli after eating at a Taco Bell on November 24 in
Riverdale, New York.
"When a restaurant serves food, there is the presumption that it is
safe for human consumption," said the family's attorney, Andrew Siben.
"Taco Bell breached that duty when serving Mr. Vormittag a taco."
The damages being sought will depend on the extent of injury to the
fifth-grader, Siben said. The suit was filed in State Supreme Court in
Suffolk County.
Calls to Taco Bell to update the status of its investigation and to
obtain reaction to the lawsuit have not been returned.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/12/08/ecoli.outbreak/index.html
Mike Lance
http://www.ComedyCentral.com