E. coli outbreak hits U.S., Canada

Source of outbreak not yet identified in U.S.

An E. coli outbreak has led to 17 illnesses and one death so far in the United States.

Illnesses have been reported in 13 states, with the one death being reported in California. The Centers for Disease Control has not yet identified a source for the outbreak, but a similar strain led to 41 reported illnesses in Canada. The Canadian government says the source for that outbreak was romaine lettuce.

The CDC is interviewing those with illnesses to help determine the cause of the outbreak in the United States. Illnesses started on dates between Nov. 28 and Dec. 8, 2017, and have been reported from have been reported from California (3), Connecticut (2), Illinois (1), Indiana (1), Michigan (1), Nebraska (1), New Hampshire (2), New York (1), Ohio (1), Pennsylvania (1), Virginia (1), Vermont (1) and Washington (1).

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Casey Laughman is the former Editor in Chief of Food Engineering magazine. He has almost two decades’ experience as a writer and editor for mainstream and trade publications. He spent several years as a writer and editor for two news services before becoming the editor of a legal publication and managing editor of a trade magazine that covered the commercial facilities market.