How public health officials rapidly traced the source of the McDonald's E. coli outbreak
Reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the McDonald's E. coli outbreak show how disease detectives pieced together what was making people sick.
In one of the early reports to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in what would later lead to a recall of McDonald’s Quarter Pounders in several states, a 61-year-old man from Wisconsin said he got sick after eating the hamburger with onions that he said he didn’t order.
“Patient reported that he ordered the Quarter Pounder without onions and was angry because it came with them on it,” according to the Oct. 21 patient report. The man ate the burger, onions included, the report said, when he was passing through a Colorado airport during a layover Sept. 29.
He later tested positive for E. coli O157:H7, a particularly nasty strain of the bacteria that can cause severe kidney problems.
In another report, a 76-year-old woman in Colorado got sick Oct. 5 and needed to be hospitalized. She reported eating an Egg McMuffin, fries and a Quarter Pounder from McDonald’s. Another day, she said, she had a ceasar salad and salmon and rice at other restaurants. She also tested positive for the E. coli strain.
And a 16-year-old boy in Colorado who reported eating at McDonald’s “most days and typically orders a Quarter Pounder or cheeseburger at each meal” got sick with E. coli O157:H7 on Sept. 29, according to his patient report. The teen said he also had a “Dr. Pepper, milk shake, bite of McChicken” at McDonald’s. Another day, a “bbq sandwich and fries” at a different restaurant.
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