E. coli found in St. Charles County amidst recent outbreak

ST. CHARLES COUNTY, Mo. – A new lawsuit has been filed against another caterer related to the recent spread of E. coli, but this one is in St. Charles County.

"For whatever reason, we're seeing St. Louis and St. Charles counties now seem to be the epicenter of this very large national E. coli outbreak linked to lettuce," attorney Jory Lange said.

Lange represents Melanie Smith, a teacher at Central Elementary in the Francis Howell School District. He says Smith got sick after eating a salad at a parent-teacher conference in early November. He says, since then, Smith has been in the hospital three times and required three transfusions.

"This has been really, really serious for her. It's been a really hard road and because she's a teacher, if you are a teacher or a healthcare worker or a restaurant worker, if you get sick with something like E. coli, you can't just go back to work when you feel better," Lange said.

He says she will be out of work until at least January. Smith has HUS, a type of kidney disease that is most commonly caused by E. coli 0157, the same strain that caused an outbreak in St. Louis County.

The Francis Howell School District says it is unaware of an outbreak involving the district but told FOX 2 in a statement, “We are aware of an investigation into the food safety practices of caterers in our region and are cooperating fully with the St. Charles County Department of Health as they work to prevent the spread of E. coli."

The district says the PTO catered the parent-teacher conference for teachers. The St. Charles County Health Department confirmed it is investigating 10 cases of E. coli 0157 reported in November but "it is too early in the investigation process to identify the sources of the various reported cases."

Because of that, FOX 2 is not identifying the caterer at this time.

"We know that other people got sick at this event and that the health department shared with our client that they had several more people to call in the same outbreak," Lange said.

FOX 2 reached out to the FDA and the CDC, who have been investigating the outbreak. The CDC did not break down the location of the cases but said they are now aware of 75 illnesses in 12 states, an increase since last week. Missouri’s Department of Health says it has 45 cases statewide connected to this outbreak, 39 of which are in the eastern region.

The CDC did confirm the E. coli strain is linked to a lettuce blend from a common supplier served at catered events and at a school. It went on to say the lettuce is past its shelf life and no longer available to people, so people do not need to avoid eating lettuce.

The St. Charles caterer named in the lawsuit said it did not want to comment on the claims at this time.