All infected during August E. coli outbreak recovering | Health officials’ investigation did not identify any specific culprit

Published 1:20 pm Tuesday, September 29, 2015

With no additional E. coli infections reported, the mid-August outbreak Public Health — Seattle and King County was investigating appears closed.

“At this point, we do not believe there is any ongoing risk,” Lindsay Bosslet, a public information officer for Public Health — Seattle and King County, wrote in a statement. “At this time, all individuals impacted by this outbreak are recovering. The last reported exposure date was more than a month ago, and no additional people have reported illness linked to this outbreak.”

In all, there were 13 people, ranging from children less than 5 years old to adults in their mid-50s, reportedly infected with E. coli in August; no one is currently hospitalized, Bosslet said.

The last reported illness was Aug. 21.

Recovering from an infection can take anywhere from under a week, for adults with uncomplicated infections, to months, Bosslet said.

Public Health officials had closed Mexican food truck Los Chilangos, the alleged link to the outbreak, Aug. 21.

Prior to that, the food truck had visited the Sammamish and Issaquah farmers markets; the last market it catered to in each town was Aug. 12 and Aug. 15, respectively.

Since the food vendor shared a community kitchen space, Eastside Commercial Kitchen in Bellevue, Public Health officials also closed the kitchen Aug. 27 due to the risk of cross contamination. Several other vendors also shared the kitchen.

Los Chilangos reopened Sept. 2 and the kitchen reopened Sept. 4 after complying with Public Health’s investigation and taking the necessary measures, like improving sanitation, according to Bosslet.

Public Health’s investigation “was not able to identify a specific ingredient associated with the illnesses,” Bosslet wrote.

For more information on the outbreak, visit www.publichealthinsider.com/2015/09/01/public-health-investigates-e-coli/.