Five people have been hospitalized. No deaths have been reported,
but two individuals developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS, a
type of kidney failure that can lead to permanent organ damage.
The infections have been reported in Montana, Utah, Colorado,
California, Missouri, Virginia and Washington, CDC said.
The current number of HUS cases is twice what is normally seen with
E. coli O157:H7, the pathogen identified in the outbreak, said Bill
Marler, a Seattle food safety attorney who represents people
sickened by tainted food.
"This tells me that the number of ill is likely going to go up
because the HUS cases are easier to track," Marler said.
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Fourteen of 16 people bought or ate rotisserie chicken salad from
Costco in the week before the illness started, but the ingredient
linked to the infection has not been identified, the CDC said.
Costco said it stopped selling the chicken salad on Nov. 20, the
same day it was notified by federal health officials that it was
linked to cases of E. coli, said Craig Wilson, vice president of
food safety at Costco.
E. coli O157:H7 can cause serious illness and is perhaps most often
associated with a 1993 outbreak that killed four children who ate
undercooked hamburgers at Jack in the Box restaurants.
Costco last year was linked to a salmonella outbreak caused by
chicken products it sold in at least nine states. The contaminated
chicken was supplied to Costco by California-based Foster Poultry
Farms. (http://reut.rs/1lIcHPf)
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The current E. coli outbreak at Costco comes days after health
officials linked burrito chain Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc to more
than 40 cases of E. coli O26 food poisoning in six states. No HUS
nor deaths have been reported in that case.
Costco's shares closed down 1.3 percent at $162.19 after heavy
trading on Tuesday and were down slightly more in extended trading.
(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle, Ramkumar Iyer in Bengaluru,
Nathan Layne in Chicago and Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing
by Dan Grebler and Siddharth Cavale)
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