Health officials suspect another Eight

Matthew Ralph of the News and Tribune has continued to follow this story:

The number of laboratory-confirmed E. coli cases has reached eight with another eight suspected all from the same group of cases linked to Galena Elementary, health officials said Friday. Dr. Tom Harris, Floyd County health officer, said one of the new cases was an adult connected to Galena, but would not say whether it was a parent or a teacher. He said the additional cases likely received the infection from the first group of E. coli-infected children, but remained optimistic that the outbreak has been contained. The incubation period of the infection is typically up to 10 days.

It will be interesting to see if the outbreak will be tied to food or water served at the school like the Finley outbreak or if it is person to person contact at the school.

Dick Kaukas of the The Courier-Journal has written – 8th case of E. coli reported in Floyd
Cause of outbreak still undetermined

According the Courier-Journal, the number of confirmed E. coli cases in Floyd County has risen to eight, and one of eight probable cases is expected to be confirmed, the county’s chief medical officer said yesterday.  Health investigators are continuing to search for the cause of the outbreak, Dr. Tom Harris said at a late-afternoon news conference.

“Unfortunately, this isn’t TV,” he said. “We won’t have the answer in an hour or two hours. This is detective work. It takes time.”

Now that secondary cases (likely person to person) are happening, I assume health officials will work overtime to get to the bottom of this outbreak – seems like a rewrite of Finley.