Coli Linked to Costco Chicken Salad Sickens 19 in Seven States

According to a news release from the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, two Montanans required hospitalization after eating Costco rotisserie chicken salad, though it is unclear whether either of those individuals suffered kidney failure, as was reported by the by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a news release November 24.

Costco is working closely with the CDC, FDA and local health officials to find the source of the E. coli and has encouraged its suppliers to do the same, Wilson said. The agency also said that this strain is more likely to be risky than the E. coli outbreak in the Northwest. The CDC said 45 people have become ill from the E. coli strain linked to Chipotle. PulseNet manages a national database of these DNA fingerprints to identify possible outbreaks. Then, it was associated to more than 600 cases of salmonella reported in 29 states.

Six people got sick in Montana, five in Utah, four in Colorado, and one each in California, Missouri, Virginia and Washington state.

“Illnesses started on dates ranging from October 6, 2015 to November 3, 2015”, the CDC alert states. Children under the age of 5, older adults and people with weakened immune systems are at highest risk from E. coli illness. Fifty-seven percent of ill people are female. According to the officials, no deaths have been reported as of now. This chart is called an epidemic curve or epi curve.

Of those 19 ill persons, 16 have been interviewed.

In Washington D.C., the E. coli case was reportedly to be “not as serious”.

Bill Marler, a Seattle food safety attorney who represents people sickened by tainted food declared that the current number of HUS cases is twice what is normally seen with E. coli 157, the pathogen identified in the outbreak.

The CDC said in a statement that the products of Costco that are under investigation are labeled “Chicken Salad made with Rotisserie Chicken” and have an item number 37719.

It’s unknown what ingredient in the food could have caused the illness, but the CDC is still investigating the E.coli outbreak.