McDonald’s E. coli outbreak grows by 50% in 3 days as lawsuits mount

Twenty-six more cases have been identified in a multistate E. coli O157:H7 outbreak linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounder burgers, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday.

The 26 new cases represent a 50 percent increase in the case count from October 22, bringing the total to 75 cases. With the new cases, health officials also reported 12 more hospitalizations, including one new adult case of hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a severe complication to an E. coli O157:H7 infection. Three more states are also newly affected: Michigan, New Mexico, and Washington.

In all, the outbreak now stands at 75 cases, including 22 hospitalizations and two cases of HUS, across 13 states. The number of deaths linked to the outbreak remains at one. The most recent illness onset for the cases identified so far is October 10.

The states with cases now include: Colorado (26 cases), Montana (13), Nebraska (11), New Mexico (5), Utah (5), Missouri (4), Wyoming (4), and Michigan (2), and one case each in Iowa, Kansas, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin.

The source of the outbreak has not yet been confirmed, but investigators have focused on the beef patties and slivered onions used on McDonald’s Quarter Pounders. McDonald’s immediately pulled the popular burger off the menu and paused distribution of the slivered onions from affected restaurants when the CDC announced the outbreak Tuesday. McDonald’s considered the affected areas to be Colorado, Kansas, Utah, and Wyoming, as well as portions of Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, and Oklahoma.

Onions recalled and destroyed

On Wednesday, one of McDonald’s onion suppliers, Taylor Farms, recalled peeled and diced yellow onion products. Taylor Farms told Bloomberg earlier this week that its testing had not turned up E. coli, but that it decided to issue the recall anyway.