DENVER An E. coli outbreak that's killed one person and sickened 26 in Colorado has been linked to McDonald's popular Quarter Pounder burger.
Health officials on Wednesday confirmed the person who died was a resident of Mesa County and said more cases may emerge.
At least 49 cases across 10 states have been reported so far, but the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said most of those illnesses are in Colorado, where 26 people have gotten sick so far.
McDonald's officials said they are working with health officials to track this outbreak and pulled its Quarter Pounder burger from the menu in some states, including Colorado.
During a media briefing Wednesday morning, a spokesperson with McDonald's told reporters on the call the source of the outbreak is still being investigated.
They pointed out two possible Quarter Pounder components as carriers for E. coli beef patties, which come from multiple suppliers and would mean contamination came from multiple places, or slivered uncooked onions, which come from a single facility.
Dr. Rachel Herlihy, state epidemiologist with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), told Denver7 she suspects those ingredients were distributed to most, if not all, Colorado McDonald's, meaning there was risk at every location.
"We want to make sure that the public understands that risk may have been present at all of McDonald's locations in Colorado," Dr. Herlihy said.
CDPHE said cases are present in nine Colorado counties Arapahoe, Chaffee, El Paso, Gunnison, Larimer, Mesa, Routt, Teller and Weld counties. So far, eight people have been hospitalized, according to CDPHE.
Dr. Herlihy on Wednesday laid out a potential timeline.
"The time span for when people ate at McDonald's and when people became ill really starts in very late September, and then into the first, maybe a little bit into the second week of October," she said.
Hear from a food safety expert in the video player below:
Food safety expert on McDonald's E. coli outbreak
With the number of cases expected to increase, those impacted are beginning to turn to litigation. Bill Marler, a food safety lawyer with Marler Clark, told Denver7 he's already representing some E. coli outbreak victims in Nebraska.
"In this particular outbreak, I've been contacted by two individuals one hospitalized, one not hospitalized from Nebraska," he said. "Both are genetic matches to the outbreak."
Marler told Denver7 he expects to hear from Colorado victims soon and remembers outbreaks in Colorado from the past.
"There was a listeria outbreak linked to cantaloupe in 2011 in Colorado. One hundred forty-seven people got sick and 33 people died, and I represented all the families of the victims of people who died," he said.
As for the symptoms associated with E. coli, Joseph Ponce, an attending physician with AdventHealth Porter, said they are hard to miss.
"Typically, what you see is abdominal discomfort," he said. "Usually patients will describe a lot of cramping. Another thing that can happen is nausea, vomiting, and then the big symptom is usually diarrhea."
He said most healthy people are able to fight off E. coli without supportive care, though that's not the case for the very young or elderly.
"If it becomes very serious, we'll sometimes have to step in with interventions such as IV fluids and IV anti-nausea medications," he said. "Typically, we don't treat this type of illness with an antibiotic because sometimes it can make the symptoms worse, but that is something that we can consider if it is prolonged and very severe."
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