MSU E. coli Outbreak: 17 More Possible Cases
September 22nd, 2008 laurie
Investigators still haven’t determined the cause of the E. coli outbreak at MSU. Probably cases jumped to 23 last week.
The State News reports that six of the 23 cases have been linked to the E. coli infection, and the remaining 17 are being studied, Ingham County Health Director Dean Sienko said.
“We have a number of staff who are doing very extensive food history interviews of many of the students involved,” Sienko said. “We expect to have results from that (today). We also expect to get additional laboratory information.”
University Physician Beth Alexander said the infection is believed to be contained and does not pose a continuing threat, but determining a cause is difficult and requires public patience.
“I know many people are impatient with finding an answer, but that’s really not the right thing to do — to jump to conclusions and then have the wrong conclusions,” Alexander said. “It’s a very complex sort of investigation — much more so than other health issues we’ve had on campus.
“I’m optimistic that this coming week, as the data starts rolling in, it will point us to what really happened with this.”
