A total of 19 people infected with the outbreak strain of Shiga toxin-producing STEC O157:H7 have been reported from 7 states. Five people have been hospitalized and two have developed a type of kidney failure, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
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Costco only has one supplier for those vegetables in the chicken salad, which is sold in all its US stores, Wilson said, adding that the supplier is Taylor Farms of Salinas, CA.
Most of the cases have affected western States such as California, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Utah, Washington, and Virginia. The six illnesses were reported to be in Gallatin, Lewis & Clark and Yellowstone counties, officials said in a press release on Tuesday.
Costco Wholesale has since stopped preparing and selling the salad. To date, health officials have not been able to determine the specific ingredient in the chicken salad responsible for the foodborne illness. She says even though stores have pulled the product and none of it has tested positive for the bacteria, they want to make sure no else gets sick. People were hospitalized in the Chipotle outbreak, but no one developed kidney failure.
All 19 patients have the same strain of E. coli bacteria, discovered through DNA fingerprinting, called pulsed field-gel electrophoresis. According to the food safety attorney, the number of people with the illness is likely to increase as tracking HUS cases is very easy.
Contact your health care provider if you think you may have become ill from eating rotisserie chicken salad from Costco. He also said that the company has been helping in the investigation into the issue. Chipotle voluntarily closed 43 restaurants in Washington and OR after that outbreak.
“I think we’re going to learn something important from both ultimately”, he said.
Symptoms of E. coli infection include diarrhea, abdominal cramps, nausea and vomiting.
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Officials from the health agency are urging people who bought chicken salad to drop it in the trash, wherever they have bought it recently.
