As per recent reports, it has been revealed that E. coli outbreak has taken place in mid and southern Michigan. In total, seven people have been affected by eating sprouts at sandwich shops. Michigan health officials have issued a public health alert in regard to the issue and have asked people to avoid consuming raw clover sprouts.

The health authorities said that they are conducting investigation to know about the origin of the contaminated sprouts and till then, they do not want people to have raw clover sprouts. People fell sick between 6 February and 12 February, and two of the seven have been hospitalized.

The Michigan Department of Community Health and the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said that they have been working with the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U. S. Food and Drug Administration to know more about the source of E. coli infection.

A spokeswoman for the health department was of the view that E. coli cases have occurred at several places. Some of the places are Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw and Kent counties.

The health authorities have been linking the case with earlier contamination cases. Past outbreak of E. coli has occurred due to mixing of manure in the sprouts during storage. This time also it is possible that something of such sort would have happened.

Epidemiologist Shane Bies said, “Raw sprouts have been known to be sources of E. coli, and salmonella as well”. Symptoms of E. coli illness are acute diarrhea, stomach pain, fever and vomiting.

The health authorities have told that those, who have consumed raw sprouts, should contact their GPs and should not wait for the condition to get worse. They have also put food safety tips on their official website.