LOCUST GROVE Okla. Oklahoma health officials said they found no traces of a deadly E. coli strain in the food of the buffet restaurant that is believed to the source of a contamination that has killed one person and sickened 248 others since mid-August.
Investigators said earlier that they had found no traces of the bacteria on any restaurant surfaces.
“Our investigation will continue to focus on interviews with persons who ate at the Country Cottage restaurant, particularly during the weekend of Aug. 15-17, when most persons who have reported becoming ill ate at the restaurant,” Kristy Bradley, the state epidemiologist, said in a statement.
The Oklahoma State Department of Health said it is also looking at well water and other possible sources of the bacteria, E. coli 0111. The Oklahoma outbreak is the largest ever for that strain.
Earlier in the week, the Seattle law firm Marler Clark said it had already been approached by seven families about filing a lawsuit in regard to the contamination. Minneapolis-based Pritzker, Ruohonen & Associates, another law firm that specializes in E. coli-related liability cases, is advertising on its website for victims who would like to sue.
The outbreak in northeastern Oklahoma has sent at least 64 people to hospital, including 16 who received dialysis treatment. Of the 248 people who became ill, 202 were adults and 46 were children.
The health department has interviewed more than 1,500 people who ate at the buffet restaurant in this town of 1,500 about 50 miles east of Tulsa, Okla. Local press reports indicate that officials also are speaking to attendees of a church event that was catered by Country Cottage.
The restaurant has been closed since Aug. 25, several days after customers began visiting hospitals for such symptoms as bloody diarrhea.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said it had recorded 10 previous outbreaks of the E. coli 0111 strain. Those had affected between three and 212 people. Before this Oklahoma case, the largest outbreak had been linked to unpasteurized apple cider in upstate New York in 2004.