A seventh confirmed case of the E. coli bacteria was made public on Thursday, one day after health departments representing Franklin and Fairfield counties said they were investigating whether other cases were related.
The most recent case involved a 55-year-old woman in Delaware County. She was released from a hospital earlier this week after dealing with complications from E. coli, 10TV's Brittany Westbrook reported.
A 52-year-old Gahanna woman died after she was hospitalized with the bacteria late last month, Westbrook reported.
Health officials in Franklin, Fairfield and now Delaware counties have been interviewing the patients who range in ages from 11 to 74 in hopes of learning the types of food they ate and where the food originated.
Officials are also conducting DNA testing on samples of the three patients in Columbus and Franklin County to determine if there is a connection, Westbrook reported.
Last year, there were six confirmed cases of E. coli in central Ohio. So far this year, eight cases have been reported, with seven occurring within the past week, Westbrook reported.
Health officials said they were not calling the cases an outbreak.
“An outbreak is defined when you look at cases that have been linked by an area or location and timing,” said Jose Rodriguez, with Columbus Public Health. “These cases have been linked by timing. They haven’t been linked by location. We still haven’t been able to determine that these people ate in the same place, or at the same meat source, for example.”
Symptoms of E. coli illness include abdominal pain and diarrhea. In severe cases, respiratory illness and pneumonia can occur.
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