Nestle Cookie Dough E. coli Outbreak Grows - CDC Now Reporting 72 ill in 30 states

Washington, DCThe US Centers For Disease Control (CDC) has announced updated statistics for the current E. coli outbreak attributed to Nestle Toll House cookie dough. As of Tuesday, June 30, 2009, 72 persons infected with foodborne illness, in this case a strain of E. coli O157:H7 with a particular DNA fingerprint, have been reported from 30 states.

Of these individiuals, 51 have been confirmed by an advanced DNA test as having the outbreak strain; these confirmatory test results are pending on the others. The number of ill persons identified in each state is as follows: Arizona (2), California (3), Colorado (6), Connecticut (1), Delaware (1), Georgia (1), Iowa (2), Illinois (5), Kentucky (2), Massachusetts (4), Maryland (2), Maine (3), Minnesota (6), Missouri (1), Montana (1), North Carolina (2), New Hampshire (2), New Jersey (1), Nevada (2), New York (1), Ohio (3), Oklahoma (1), Oregon (1), Pennsylvania (2), South Carolina (1), Texas (3), Utah (4), Virginia (2), Washington (6), and Wisconsin (1).
The ill persons range in age from 2 to 65 years; however, 65 percent are less than 19 years old and 71 percent are female. Thirty-four persons have been hospitalized and 10 developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). None have died.
On June 29, 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that a culture of a sample of pre-packaged Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough currently under recall yielded E. coli O157:H7. The contaminated sample was collected at the firm on June 25, 2009. Further laboratory testing is underway to determine whether the E. coli strain in the product matched the strain causing the outbreak.

E. coli O157:H7 has not been previously associated with eating raw cookie dough. The CDC, state health departments, and federal regulatory partners are working together in this ongoing investigation.

Most people infected with E. coli O157:H7 develop diarrhea (often bloody) and abdominal cramps 2-8 days (average of 3-4 days) after swallowing the organism, but some illnesses last longer and are more severe. Infection is usually diagnosed by culture of a stool sample. Most people recover within a week, but some develop a severe infection. A type of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) can begin as the diarrhea is improving; this can occur in people of any age but is most common in children under 5 years old and the elderly.