There have been no deaths reported, the CDC said.
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Fourteen of 16 people bought or ate rotisserie chicken salad from Costco in the week before the illness started, but the ingredient linked to the infection has not been identified, the CDC said.
McCullough said the Costco chicken salad has not tested positive for E. coli, but health officials in multiple states identified a “strong association” between the chicken salad and the cluster of illnesses. Consumers should not eat and throw away any rotisserie chicken salad from any Costco store in the United States on or before November 20, 2015. Costco has voluntarily removed the chicken salad (item #37719) from their shelves and no other products are a concern at this time.
The outbreak is not related to a recent case involving Chipotle restaurants, in which 40 people were sickened.
Four cases of E. coli were confirmed in Colorado, where one person was hospitalized.
Utah Department of Health officials said Tuesday that people seven states have been affected.
Two of the people were hospitalized.
The patients are infected with a strain of E. coli called O157:H7, which produces a harmful toxin called Shiga toxin.
Along with Costco, the Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service, as well as the CDC, are all diligently working to uncover where the contamination came from.
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Costco chicken salad sold in Washington locations have also been recalled. Most healthy people will recover without need for medical intervention, but young children and the elderly are at particular risk for kidney failure, according to the Mayo Clinic. Our E. coli lawyers have litigated E. coli and HUS cases stemming from outbreaks traced to ground beef, raw milk, lettuce, spinach, sprouts, and other food products. Most people infected develop diarrhea (often bloody) and abdominal cramps.
