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# 3 Severe E. coli Illnesses in Mass. Town
- URL: https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2013/06/3-severe-e-coli-illnesses-in-ma-town/
- Published: 2013-06-13T21:21:43.000Z
- Updated: 2018-07-31T00:05:53.000Z
- Author: James Andrews
- Tags: Foodborne Illness Investigations, Foodborne Illness Outbreaks, E. coli, E. coli O157:H7, E. coli outbreak, Massachusetts, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-11-25 08:58

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Since May 20, three women have been admitted to Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Newton, Mass., suffering from severe E. coli infections in an apparent outbreak now under investigation by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. A spokeswoman for the state health department confirmed the investigation to **Food Safety News** after our reporters received a forwarded email written by a doctor at the hospital. According to the doctor, all three women have been infected with E. coli O157:H7 and have developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a kidney disease associated with the most severe E. coli infections. First, a 53 year-old woman was admitted May 20\. A 44 year-old woman was admitted on June 6, and a 41 year-old woman entered the emergency department on June 11\. “The demographics of this current cluster is similar to that of the German/French experience in 2011 with the new O104:H4 strain with enteroaggregative and Shiga toxin phenotype,” the doctor wrote, referring to a [massive European E. coli outbreak](https://www.foodsafetynews.com/germanys-e-coli-outbreak-a-global-lesson/) in the summer of 2011 that ultimately sickened nearly 4,000 and killed 53\. That outbreak was linked to fresh sprouts grown in Germany’s Lower Saxony.