Today the Wisconsin Division of Public Health announced an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak amongst residents of Greent County. The illnesses happened largely in August, and at least 9 people were sickened. Sadly one young girl has died. Two people developed HUS.
The Wisconsin Public Health Department has not yet identified the source of the outbreak. But Wisconsin health officials are first rate. If something is to be found about the source, they’ll probably find it.
Wisconsin has certainly been no stranger to E. coli O157:H7. Forty-nine Wisconsin residents were sickened in the infamous spinach E. coli O157:H7 (and other serotypes) outbreak in August/September 2006. (Actually, it was a call from the mother, in the second week of September, of TWO kids infected in the outbreak that helped us figure out exactly what was happening). And in the JBS E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in summer 2009, at least six Wisconsin residents were infected, including Joshua Rosploch, who developed HUS. This is just a short list, but these several states (most prominently Wisconsin and Minnesota) truly have been at the epicenter of surveillance and detection of multiple major national outbreaks. Here’s a link to a list of about 24 other Wisconsin E. coli outbreaks that affected Wisconsin residents or involved Wisconsin food. Courtesy of our firm’s database at www.outbreakdatabase.com