Inspectors Still Tracking Source Of E. Coli

It is the largest E. coli outbreak of its kind in U.S. history.  It all started 10 days ago with 12 patients at Saint Francis Hospital.  Six days later, the number topped 100.   The News On 6's Ashli Sims reports now the number has doubled.  There are 206 people sick, ranging in age from two months to 88 years old.

Health investigators have narrowed their search to the Country Cottage Restaurant in Locust Grove.  But it's ruled out well water, as a source of the contamination.

Health officials still don't know how the E. coli outbreak, which has turned epidemic, got started.

"It does take some time for them to find all the things you're looking for," said Elizabeth Nutt with the Tulsa Health Department.

Elizabeth Nutt works for the Tulsa County Health Department and is not directly involved in the Mayes County case.  But, she says typically these cases are very complicated.  Investigators don't just talk to those who are sick, but everyone they interacted with, and those who didn't get sick.

"You are working with people's recall of what they did, not just the people that ate there, but the people who work there.  What they did. That starts to become a little fuzzy," said Elizabeth Nutt with the Tulsa Health Department.

Those details are made fuzzier, by the passage of time.  Nutt says investigators are asking folks about what they did and ate eight to 12 days earlier.  And then, there's the testing.  The health department tests everything from samples of food to surfaces inside the restaurant.

"They also do environmental swabbing where they'll take a Q-tip of a cotton swab and dip it in a media and they'll swab an environmental surface like food equipment, cutting board, or sinks," said Elizabeth Nutt with the Tulsa Health Department.

And, in this cat and mouse game, E. coli has the advantage.  It's a fraction of our size and it only takes a little to cause a lot of damage to the human body.

"It takes very few of these organisms to make somebody ill.  Five or 10 microscopic size organisms.  Sometime you may swab an area that doesn't have any organisms on it but right next to it could be so it's very challenging," said Elizabeth Nutt with the Tulsa Health Department.

The Country Cottage is still voluntarily closed while the health department continues its investigation.  The number of those sick could continue to climb, but doctors say the cases should start tapering off.

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