The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a revised statement Tuesday with updated information on the number of E. coli O157:H7 cases related to Saturday’s recall of 545,699 pounds of ground beef by Ashville, N.Y.-based Fairbank Farms.
The CDC now states 26 cases from 11 states have matching strains of E. coli O157:H7. One case has been reported in each of the following states: California, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York and Vermont. Two cases have been reported in both Maine and Pennsylvania, four cases are in Connecticut and New Hampshire and eight cases are in Massachusetts.
Of all 26 cases, 16 patients have been hospitalized, 3 developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a type of kidney failure, and two have died. Thirteen of these cases have been confirmed by advanced secondary DNA tests to be linked to the Fairbank Farms products, while secondary tests are pending on samples from other cases. Depending on these results, the number of cases associated with this outbreak may increase or decrease.
