Lettuce suspected in Ontario E. coli cases
Pastor Dale Morgan
Lettuce suspected in Ontario E. coli cases*
Oct. 7 2006 11:09 PM ET
CTV News Staff
CANADA - Two separate E. coli outbreaks in Ontario, with a total of 34
confirmed and suspected cases, may have been the result of tainted lettuce.
Officials are investigating outbreaks stemming from a restaurant in
Sudbury and a school in Hamilton. The cities, which are about five hours
away from each other, both had outbreaks dating back to late September.
"We have 14 under investigation in Sudbury, three of which have been
confirmed," Medical Officer of Health for the Sudbury District Health
Unit, Dr. Penny Sutcliffe, told CTV.ca on Friday.
Sutcliffe said the outbreak has been traced back to a local restaurant
in Sudbury.
"In investigating those 14 cases, the vast majority of them have in
common eating at a local restaurant on the 20th of September," she said.
"The food that they have in common that they consumed is lettuce."
Lettuce, which has not officially been confirmed as the source of the E.
coli, is the same food source under investigation in the Hamilton
outbreak, City of Hamilton communications officer Tim Tuck told CTV.ca.
"As of today (Friday), there are 20 cases that have been investigated,"
said Tuck. "Eleven of them are confirmed positive and there are nine
suspect cases that we still don't have the results confirmed yet."
All of the cases stem from Hamilton's Hillfield Strathallan College, a
pre-school to high-school facility. While final test results have not
come back, Sutcliffe said there likely is a lettuce link.
"At this point I call it probable," said Sutcliffe. "When the E. coli is
analyzed at the lab there is a fingerprinting that's done of the
bacteria and that fingerprint so far looks the same."
"There still are some tests that are outstanding to confirm that but
that would be another piece of evidence in terms of linking the two
outbreaks together."
But with an incubation period for E. coli of around 3 to 4 days, the "at
risk" exposure is likely past as no new cases have been reported since
Sept. 27, said Sutcliffe.
"Certainly from our investigation it doesn't point to any ongoing
concerns about E. coli infection or about consumption of lettuce so
there aren't any special precautions at all that we're communicating to
the public here."
Known as the 'hamburger disease', toxins from the E. coli bacteria under
investigation can cause nausea, vomiting, bloody diarrhea and even
death. The bacteria, E. coli 0:157, is the same bug responsible for the
Walkerton, Ont. water-borne outbreak in May 2000 that killed seven
people and made 2,500 sick.
"It's an organism that can be pretty nasty," said Sutcliffe.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said no recalls were being planned
since all tests on foods to date have come back negative.
"There's an investigation being done by the Ontario Ministry of Health,
we're supporting them but our role has to do with testing food... so far
there's no testing confirming a food link," Marc Richard, a spokesperson
for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, told CTV.ca on Friday.
A two-week consumer warning on fresh spinach by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration was lifted last week. Three people died and about 190
became ill from eating spinach.