OHIO, USA — An E. coli outbreak in Ohio, Michigan and other nearby states has been declared over by the CDC on Tuesday.
The CDC reported 83% of sick people interviewed said they at Wendy's restaurants in several states before getting sick. 68% of those people said they ate romaine lettuce in their Wendy's meal. But, a specific ingredient that caused the outbreak could not be confirmed because it ended before enough data could be gathered.
There were 109 infections reported from six total states: Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Indiana, New York and Kentucky. 52 people were hospitalized and there were no deaths.
The CDC said state and local health officials interviewed 82 with a detailed food history, 68 of whom said they ate at Wendy’s restaurants in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, and Pennsylvania in the week before their illness started. 48 of those 68 reported eating romaine lettuce served on burgers and sandwiches.
According to the CDC, three types of data are collected when outbreaks of foodborne illnesses:
- Epidemiologic data (when and where people got sick, what they had eaten before they got sick, etc.)
- Traceback data (points in the distribution chain food could have gotten contaminated, possible germ-friendly environments in food production facilities)
- Food and environmental testing data (if the germ causing the outbreak found in other food items or the DNA of sick people)