Hawaii’s Department of Health was cited as reporting earlier this month that four tourists and four others on Kaua’i in March were most likely infected by eating contaminated lettuce from a Kaua’i farm, where heavy rains and flooding had carried E. coli O157 from a cattle pasture onto the lettuce patch.

The story notes that health investigators took DNA from the disease organisms in patients, and were able to determine that the strain of E. coli O157 bacteria in all the victims had the same DNA fingerprint.

Janice Okubo, public information officer for the state Department of Health, was quoted as saying,

"It was determined that one item, locally produced lettuce, was common to at least one restaurant eaten at by each case during their probable exposure."