On October 31st, about fifty Chipotle restaurants in Washington and Oregon were temporarily closed down due E.coli reports. There were about twenty cases in Washington and three cases in Oregon that have been linked to locations such as Chipotle. No one has died from the reported cases of the infections but seven Washington patients and one Oregon patient were hospitalized. The cases have been linked to half a dozen of Chipotle restaurants in Seattle and Portland, Chipotle responded by temporarily shut down to further investigate. Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold made a statement, “We immediately closed all of our restaurants in the area out of an abundance of caution, even though the vast majority of these restaurants have no reported problems”. The source of contamination has not yet been found but Chipotle and the health departments are determine to find the cause of the cases.
According to the CDC, E. coli is an infection cause the Escherichia bacteria commonly found in human and animal intestines. Most E. coli strains are harmless but infections occur when tiny amounts of human and animal feces are presents. The Escherichia coli infection can cause severe stomach cramps, vomiting and diarrhea that contains blood. Infections can range from mild cases such as low fevers to life threatening responses to the E. coli.