The kids always get it worst.

An outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 linked to consumption of raw milk in Minnesota has felled at least four people, including a toddler who remains hospitalized.

And last night, Washington state officials reported that two recent infections with E. coli O157 have been identified in Washington residents who drank raw, unpasteurized milk. The two cases confirmed this month bring the count of infections this year associated with one Bellingham dairy to eight.

Each year, several dozen people are usually sickened by raw milk in Minnesota. But this is the first outbreak — two or more cases that are linked — in at least 15 years, Health Department officials say.

Assistant state epidemiologist Richard Danila said the Health Department found four cases of E. Coli O157:H7 between May 1 and 21, all of which had the same DNA fingerprint.

Two of those sickened were school-age children, one was a man who was at least 70 years old and the fourth was a toddler. All four were hospitalized: one overnight, two for four days, and one, the toddler, is still in the hospital after being admitted late last week.

Today, the Star-Tribune reports that Michael Hartmann, the organic farmer who produced the implicated raw milk in Minnesota, has for years fought the government’s efforts to regulate him. He last had a license to sell Grade A milk in 2001. He has kicked inspectors off his property, refused to tell a judge his name in court and asserted he is a "natural man" with a constitutional right to raise and sell food without government interference.

Dr. Kirk Smith, supervisor of state Health Department foodborne disease investigations said Thursday that the investigation of his dairy is continuing but said they have little doubt it produced the raw milk containing a deadly strain of E. coli, adding,

"I am concerned that we are going to hear about more cases.” It often takes up to two weeks for cases to surface.

Hartmann declined to talk about the outbreak with a reporter Thursday, other than to say, "It’s all been blown out of proportion."

I doubt the parents of the toddler feel that way.

In Washington, the two new patients say they drank raw milk produced by Jackie’s Jersey Milk in Whatcom County. WSDA has conducted additional testing of the firm’s product, but has not found E. coli in the milk. WSDA continues to work with the farm to review the dairy’s production and product handling practices.

The firm issued a product recall notice in February after WSDA found E. coli during routine sampling of the farm’s raw milk. Soon after the February recall, six patients with E. coli infections reported drinking the dairy’s product. People who were sick said they got the milk at retail stores in King, Snohomish, and Skagit counties.

An updated table of raw-milk related outbreaks is available at
http://bites.ksu.edu/rawmilk