Tag Archives: Carthage

1 dead, 10 sick from E. coli at Missouri Thanksgiving meal

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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.

Missouri resident dies from E. coli; 10 others sick from family gathering

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A Jasper County resident died earlier this week from what sounds like shiga-toxin producing E. coli food contamination and 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 told the Carthage Press 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, adding,

"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 his 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 person who died.