E-coli Outbreak from Raw Milk Cheese Sickens 11 People
03/06/2024
In mid-February, 11 people, ranging in age from 2-58, fell ill. Stricken with stomach pain, nausea, diarrhea and fever, four of these patients would be hospitalized.
The 11 people were spread out between five states—almost all in the western United States. One outlier case was in New Jersey, hundreds of miles from the rest.
So, what did they all have in common? According to the CDC’s latest report on February 28th, the common factor was unpasteurized cheddar cheese from the brand RAW FARM, and they were sick with E.coli.
E. coli is a bacterium that lives inside the intestines of healthy people and animals, and it typically won’t make a person sick. However, some strains of E. coli can cause severe symptoms.
In rare cases, E.coli can cause a type of kidney failure called Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS). Out of the 11 patients involved in the outbreak, one developed HUS.
At the Institute of Infectious Diseases (IDI) at Ohio State University, researchers in Ecology, Epidemiology and Population Health study how infectious diseases, including foodborne pathogens like E. coli, spread across a population. A Campaign for Real Milk states that selling raw cheese aged 60 days is legal throughout the United States; Ohio has not yet been affected by the RAW FARM outbreak, but the IDI may want to keep it on their radar.
Sources:
https://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/raw-milk-cheese-2-24/index.html
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/e-coli/symptoms-causes/syc-20372058
https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/rawmilk/fast-facts.html
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