Officials connect E. coli outbreak to 5 events, including Oakville High banquet
ST. LOUIS COUNTY — As the number of cases continued to grow, health officials on Tuesday said they have now linked an E. coli outbreak to five events, including a banquet at Oakville Senior High School, that were all catered by the same company.
One of the 97 cases was connected to a band banquet at Oakville High on Nov. 6 with food provided by Andre's Banquets and Catering, said Doug Moore, a spokesman for St. Louis County Executive Sam Page.
The student who became ill after the banquet was hospitalized but has since been released, said Mehlville School District spokeswoman Jessica Pupillo.
"We hope to not have any more (cases) but we are keeping our eyes peeled," she said.
Two catered funeral-related events on Nov. 8 and Nov. 9 were also linked this week to the outbreak, Moore said Tuesday. He did not provide the locations of those events but said one was at a South County church.
Moore said that at all five events, people who fell ill had eaten salad provided by Andre's. County Department of Public Health officials have visited the catering company, Moore said, and food from the business is at a lab for testing.
He said the agency is continuing to investigate.
"The health department is focused on trying to track how many of these events may have been involved and that's their priority right now," Moore said.
Officials initially had said that the E. coli cases were linked to two events: one on Nov. 7 when the Rockwood Summit High School marching band gathered for dinner at Andre's South on Telegraph Road in St. Louis County, and one honoring veterans the next day at the school that was catered by Andre's.
County officials on Tuesday said the number of confirmed and suspected cases had increased to 97, up from 94 on Monday.
Meanwhile, Mary LaPak, a spokeswoman for the Rockwood School District, on Tuesday said there were two Rockwood students still hospitalized. That was down from three hospitalized on Monday and 12 students in the hospital over the weekend.
John Armengol Jr., the second-generation owner of Andre's Banquets and Catering, on Tuesday reiterated his position that any claims that his company is tied to the outbreak were "not true at all."
"The only case is the Rockwood case," he said. "(Health officials) haven't been down to do nothing. They just took some lettuce on Monday after it'd been sitting there for 10 days."
Armengol on Monday had said two Rockwood students who came down with E. coli "were not even at any of the two Andre's events that we did."
The catering business is also now facing legal trouble.
Jennifer Cumbus of Fenton on Monday sued the company on behalf of her daughter who fell sick Nov. 10, two days after she ate food at a Rockwood Summit event catered by Andre's.
Cumbus filed suit against Banquet Enterprises Inc., which operates Andre's Banquets and Catering. She is seeking unspecified damages.
Many types of E. coli are harmless. But 0157, the strain in the Rockwood Summit outbreak, produces a toxin that can cause severe diarrhea and lead to kidney failure, especially in young children or older adults, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The outbreak in St. Louis County comes as two other E. coli outbreaks have made national headlines.
More than 100 people in 14 states fell ill in an outbreak of E. coli food poisoning tied to onions served on McDonald's Quarter Pounder hamburgers, in cases reported between Sept. 12 and Oct. 21.
One person died in Colorado and four people developed a potentially life-threatening kidney disease complication.
Following that, at least 39 people were infected and 15 were hospitalized in 18 states after eating organic whole and baby carrots sold by Grimmway Farms, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Sunday.
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