Deadly E. coli outbreak traced to bagged spinach spreads to ninth state

WASHINGTON - Federal health officials worked Friday to find the source of a multistate E. coli outbreak and warned consumers -- including those Indiana -- that even washing the suspect spinach won't kill the sometimes-deadly bacteria.\nOne person died and dozens of others were sickened in the nine-state outbreak, linked by Food and Drug Administration officials to bagged spinach.\n"We need to strive to do even better so even one life is not lost," said Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, FDA's acting commissioner.\nJennifer Dunlap, a spokesperson for the Indiana Department of Health, said four people in the state were infected with E. coli that matched the same strain as the outbreak. But the department could not definitively say they were part of the outbreak without further testing.\nThe FDA warned people not to eat bagged spinach and said washing it wouldn't solve the problem because the bacteria is too tightly attached.\n"If you wash it, it is not going to get rid of it," said Robert Brackett, director of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Nutrition.\nThe original outbreak was reported Thursday in eight states. Ohio became the ninth Friday, with health officials reporting seven cases -- one serious -- there.\nMeanwhile, supermarkets around the country began pulling packaged spinach from store shelves.\n"We pulled everything that we have spinach in," said Dan Brettelle, manager of a Piggly Wiggly store in Columbia, S.C.\nOfficials believes the spinach might have been grown in California, and federal and state health officials were there trying to pinpoint the source of the contamination.\nE. coli is commonly present in animal manure.\nBrackett said the use of manure as a fertilizer for produce typically consumed raw, such as spinach, is not in keeping with good agricultural practices. "It is something we don't want to see," he told a food policy conference.\nNine states were reporting a total of 57 cases of E. coli, according to the latest tally Friday.\nThe death occurred in Wisconsin, where 20 people were reported ill, 11 of them in Milwaukee. The outbreak has sickened others -- nine of them seriously -- in Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Michigan, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon and Utah. In California, state health officials said they were investigating a possible case there.\nThe outbreak has affected a mix of ages, but most of the cases have involved women, Acheson said. Further information on the person who died wasn't available.