(credit: Eric/Flickr)
Was it the cilantro? The tomatoes? Maybe some bad meat? The culprit behind a multi-state foodborne illness outbreak linked to Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurants in the Northwest may never be identified. Despite closely tracking the outbreak, interviewing those sickened, and testing a variety of food samples, local and federal health experts have so far come up empty-handed in the search for its source. With no trace of the source in sight, Chipotle announced on Tuesday that it is moving to reopen affected stores.
Meanwhile, patients' test results continue to roll in from the unresolved outbreak, which spread Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O26 (STEC 026) to unsuspecting consumers. The count as of Wednesday is 46 sickened people, with 27 in Washington state and 19 in Oregon. STEC 026 causes bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramps, vomiting, and fever and can lead to death (none have been reported in this outbreak). Though the source is unknown, many of those sickened reported eating at a Chipotle restaurant.
Overall, the outbreak highlights an all too common dichotomy of foodborne illnesses in the US: experts are getting better at detecting and tracking outbreaks, but they still struggle to solve and prevent them—and in some ways, it’s getting harder.
Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments
No comments:
Post a Comment