Holiday E. coli outbreak should look familiar to Washington
Nov 21, 2018, 4:29 PM | Updated: Nov 22, 2018, 7:57 am
If an E. coli outbreak during the holiday season seems familiar, that’s because this isn’t the first time this particular strain has hit the Northwest.
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Grocery stores and restaurants across the country are destroying their supplies of romaine lettuce ahead of Thanksgiving this week, with an E. coli breakout sickening 32 people across 11 states. The relative panic surrounding this outbreak may ring some bells for Washington residents, too.
“It turns out this is the exact same strain, that back in 1993, was linked to undercooked hamburgers at Jack in the Box restaurants that made hundreds of people sick — some suffered permanent damage, and four children died in this outbreak,” said KIRO Radio’s Heather Bosch.
The outbreak in 1993 affected 73 Jack in the Box locations, sickened over 600 people in Washington state, hospitalized 107 people, and killed four. Ultimately, it was traced back to five United States slaughterhouses and one in Canada.
For this latest E. coli scare, the prevailing theory from the FDA is less meat-related, but the fact that it’s the same strain in roughly the same time of year still makes for an interesting coincidence.
The rest of Washington isn’t taking any chances leading into the holiday weekend.
“The recall and the nature of it is really unusual,” Jeremy Hardy told KIRO Radio. Hardy owns Seattle pizzeria, Mioposto. “Any romaine from any source in any application needs to be thrown away right now, and anything that’s ever touched it may be contaminated.”
“It strikes us as oddly dramatic,” he added, noting how growers and restaurants both found out the same way: Through the news.
“The growers found out the same way we did, rather than getting any kind of an up front notice — it seems like there’s a surprising lack of process, and kind of a desperate nature about this,” said Hardy.
Given the effect the last big outbreak had on Washington, it’s no wonder it has the country scrambling.
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