The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is warning of a new Escherichia coli (E. coli) O157:H7 outbreak that so far has left at least 37 ill and 10 people hospitalized. The CDC hasn’t yet confirmed a specific food source behind the outbreak, but lettuce beware. Because lettuce is right now the leading suspect. And not just any lettuce, but Romaine lettuce. And not just any Romaine lettuce from anywhere, but Romaine lettuce from Wendy’s restaurants. And not just any Romaine lettuce from Wendy’s restaurants, but the Romaine lettuce on Wendy’s sandwiches and burgers, which ain’t the same as the Romaine lettuce used for their salads.
Here’s a tweet from the CDC about this outbreak:
Again, lettuce be clear. The romaine lettuce at Wendy’s is the suspected but not the confirmed cause. So, romaine open about other possibilities. This suspicion was based on the finding that 22 (86%) of the 26 outbreak victims interviewed had eaten at a Wendy’s restaurant in Michigan, Ohio, or Pennsylvania the week prior to beginning of their symptoms. All of the reported cases have been in one of four states, 19 in Ohio, 15 in Michigan, two in Pennsylvania, and one in Indiana. The most common item eaten at Wendy’s by those who have gotten sick was romaine lettuce served on burgers and sandwiches. Not surprisingly Wendy’s restaurants in the region are removing the romaine lettuce being used in burgers and sandwiches. After all, when someone asks, “would you like a little E. coli O157:H7 on your sandwich,” your answer should be “no.”
That’s because E. coli O157:H7 is not your friendly neighborhood E. coli. Instead, it can be a very poopy one and potentially a bloody awful one. It’s one of the Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) because it produces Shiga toxin. You can also use the names verocytotoxin-producing E. coli (VTEC) or enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) to describe a STEC if you want to sound impressive at a cocktail party. Symptoms typically begin two to five days after you’ve ingested E. coli O157:H7. Then it can be five to 10 days of some combination of fatigue, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea. Oh, and here’s something more to add to the fun: the diarrhea may be bloody.
Clearly, you don’t tend to add the word “yay” to diarrhea. But such symptoms aren’t even the worst of what may happen when you’ve got E. coli O157:H7 in you. No, what’s even worse is HUS, which is not a combination of a ham and a bus, but rather stands for hemolytic uremic syndrome. HUS is a potentially life-threatening condition where your red blood cells get ripped apart and your kidneys fail. Your red blood cells are kind of important as they carry oxygen through your bloodstream to different parts of your body, Your kidneys are also kind of important since they help you excrete waste from your body in the form of pee. You may be more likely to suffer HUS from a E. coli O157:H7 infection if you are a child or over 65 years of age.
The CDC lists a number of symptoms that should prompt a call to you doctor as soon as possible. This includes having diarrhea that lasts for over three days and isn’t improving, Another listed reason to contact your doctor is if you have bloody diarrhea, meaning diarrhea with blood in it and not just diarrhea and you yelling, “bloody heck.” And not peeing much may be a sign that “urine” trouble, so to speak, and may be a sign of HUS.
This is the first E. coli outbreak to appear on the CDC’s list of E. coli outbreaks for 2022. Last year, 2021, had four such outbreaks: one from packaged salads, another from baby spinach, a third from cake mix, and a fourth from unknown food source. When the CDC said unknown food source, it meant that the culprit hasn’t yet been found. It didn’t mean that people were putting unknown foods in their mouths while blindfolded.
At this time, the CDC is not telling you to avoid eating at Wendy’s restaurants or Romaine lettuce in general. Naturally, if someone ate half a burger with romaine lettuce and then got very sick several days later, you shouldn’t then say, “alrighty, leftovers,” and shove the remaining burger pieces into your mouth. Otherwise, you’d be playing a game of craps in more ways than one.