An E. coli food poisoning outbreak in Germantown, Ohio has been linked to a picnic at Neff’s Lawn Care. At least 61 people have become ill. Of those, 11 were hospitalized.
As many as 200-300 people may have attended an annual customer appreciation picnic held by Neff’s Lawn Care, 9400 Ekhart Road, Germantown, OH on July 3, 2012. With numbers that high, more than 61 people probably ate the food that made the others ill. The incubation period for E. coli is up to 10 days and it takes time after that for a case to be reported, so this outbreak may grow for a few weeks.
Anyone who attended the Neff’s Lawn Care picnic should watch for E. coli symptoms, including severe stomach cramps and bloody diarrhea. If you think you or your child has E. coli, the CDC recommends that antibiotics and antidiarrheal medicines should not be used. These medications have been shown to increase the risk of developing hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), which causes kidney failure, pancreatitis, stroke and a host of other problems, all of which can be fatal.
