Six people have fallen ill in Montana, five in Utah, four in Colorado, and one each in California, Missouri, Virginia and Washington state. Five people have been sent to the hospital for E. coli-related symptoms; two people developed a kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome.
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On a report broadcast by CBS morning news on Wednesday, Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist from Vanderbilt University, described the strain of E. coli discovered in Costco chicken salad as “much more hazardous” than that discovered at the Chipotle restaurant chain.
If you have any Costco chicken salad at home, check the label before you eat it.
On Nov. 20, Costco removed all of the rotisserie chicken salad from its stores, and stopped producing the product.
“Our rotisserie chickens are not implicated at all”, Wilson said. As health departments get more reports of foodborne illness, additional people will be checked for the fingerprint and the case count will likely rise, Tauxe said. Fifty people were sickened after eating at one of 43 Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurants between October 14 and Oct 23.
The CDC is advising people through campaigns to drop or throw away the chicken salad recently bought, even after consuming a small amount.
An E.Coli outbreak has been linked to Costco’s rotisserie chicken salad, but the CDC is unaware of which ingredient was contaminated.
The health departments in each state are now working with Costco, Center for Disease Control (CDC), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to identify the source of the contamination. Ill people range in age from 5 years to 84, with a median age of 18. He also said that the company has been helping in the investigation into the issue.
To learn about how to avoid food-borne illnesses caused by bacteria like E. coli, check out “7 Keys to Dodging Deadly Bacteria That Lurk in Your Food”.
Officials from the health agency are urging people who bought chicken salad to drop it in the trash, wherever they have bought it recently.
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A person that has E. coli infection will experience abdominal cramps, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting.
