More people are sick, more people have died, and more states are reporting E. coli infections in an ongoing outbreak linked to romaine lettuce. As the CDC was releasing the new numbers Friday, growers were promising to figure out what happened and take action.
Five people in the United States have died in the outbreak, which has sickened at least 197 as of May 30. That’s 25 more confirmed cases since the previous update on May 16.
All of the victims who reported eating romaine before becoming sick — except for eight inmates in an Alaskan prison — said they ate chopped romaine. The sick prisoners ate romaine from whole heads, according to prison officials. Those whole heads were traced to Harrison Farms in Yuma, but the farm finished harvesting and plowed the field before investigators could visit it.
