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CARTHAGE, Mo. —
Health department: Death, illnesses related to family gathering
A Jasper County resident has died from E. coli food contamination, and the Jasper County Health Department is investigating other possible cases that might be related to a single family gathering over Thanksgiving weekend.
Jasper County Health Department Director Tony Moehr said the victim died this week of an extreme case of E. coli, and his department is trying to determine what the people who got sick ate at this gathering.
He would not release the name of the victim or the family or a more specific location or address. He did, however, say that deaths from E. coli contamination are extremely rare.
“I can’t remember the last time someone in Jasper County died from E. coli,” Moehr said.
“What happens with E. coli is you can get a mild case or you can get a moderate case where you have nausea, sometimes bloody diarrhea and vomiting. Sometimes people have symptoms and they get over them in a day or a few days. In rare cases, severe E. coli poisoning can progress to conditions like hemolytic uremic syndrome that can cause the organs to shut down. That more severe form is apparently what happened in this case,” Moehr said.
Moehr’s office has collected the leftover food that remains from that family event. He said a total of 11 people out of 24 people who attended the event have reported some symptoms, including the one death.
“So far we have not seen other cases in people not related to this one event,” Moehr said. “It all appears related to this one event and we don’t appear to have any kind of widespread public health issue.”
Moehr said all the food at the event appears to have been either prepared foods bought from grocery stores or casseroles and other foods that were prepared at peoples’ homes and brought to the event.
Moehr said E. coli is a bacterium that exists in the guts of all warm-blooded animals.
It’s spread through a number of ways usually associated with undercooked meat or poor hand-washing practices after people go to the bathroom.
Moehr said in E. coli cases, his office usually makes sure that the people infected do not work in the food service industry. If they do, they are usually ordered to stay away from work for several days until the illness passes.
Health department: Death, illnesses related to family gathering
A Jasper County resident has died from E. coli food contamination, and the Jasper County Health Department is investigating other possible cases that might be related to a single family gathering over Thanksgiving weekend.
Jasper County Health Department Director Tony Moehr said the victim died this week of an extreme case of E. coli, and his department is trying to determine what the people who got sick ate at this gathering.
He would not release the name of the victim or the family or a more specific location or address. He did, however, say that deaths from E. coli contamination are extremely rare.
“I can’t remember the last time someone in Jasper County died from E. coli,” Moehr said.
“What happens with E. coli is you can get a mild case or you can get a moderate case where you have nausea, sometimes bloody diarrhea and vomiting. Sometimes people have symptoms and they get over them in a day or a few days. In rare cases, severe E. coli poisoning can progress to conditions like hemolytic uremic syndrome that can cause the organs to shut down. That more severe form is apparently what happened in this case,” Moehr said.
Moehr’s office has collected the leftover food that remains from that family event. He said a total of 11 people out of 24 people who attended the event have reported some symptoms, including the one death.
“So far we have not seen other cases in people not related to this one event,” Moehr said. “It all appears related to this one event and we don’t appear to have any kind of widespread public health issue.”
Moehr said all the food at the event appears to have been either prepared foods bought from grocery stores or casseroles and other foods that were prepared at peoples’ homes and brought to the event.
Moehr said E. coli is a bacterium that exists in the guts of all warm-blooded animals.
It’s spread through a number of ways usually associated with undercooked meat or poor hand-washing practices after people go to the bathroom.
Moehr said in E. coli cases, his office usually makes sure that the people infected do not work in the food service industry. If they do, they are usually ordered to stay away from work for several days until the illness passes.
He said in this case, none of the people associated with this event appear to work in the food service industry.
Moehr also said the fact that there have not been any cases outside the small group of people associated with that Thanksgiving weekend event indicates that it’s not something that came from a local grocery store.
“At this point it only seems connected to this one specific event,” Moehr said. “We hope this can be a learning event rather than an event where people panic. We would want to emphasize that this can be prevented sometimes by washing hands thoroughly after going to the bathroom or before preparing food and avoiding cross-contamination by thoroughly cleaning surfaces. If people start seeing bloody diarrhea or feeling ill, they should seek medical attention.”
