Details are trickling out about the death of Jasper County, Missouri, resident from E. coli last week.
The Joplin Globe reports this morning that a food or a beverage served at a Thanksgiving dinner is the apparent source of an E. coli outbreak that killed a 51-year-old Carthage woman and sickened several other people.
Tony Moehr, director of the Jasper County Health Department, said,
“We have two confirmed cases of E. coli O157:H7 in Jasper County. One of the cases resulted in a death.”
Moehr said a third confirmed case of the bacterial infection has been reported in Dade County and involves someone who attended the Thanksgiving dinner.
“It appears the cases are related to a family gathering for Thanksgiving on Nov. 27,” he said. “We have identified seven or eight additional illnesses related to that gathering, but we don’t have the test results back for them. These cases occurred around the same period of time but were not as severe.”
It is believed that 11 of the 24 people who attended the event became ill.
The department, Moehr said, did not issue a press release about the E. coli death because the incident was associated with a family gathering and did not pose a threat to the public.