Posted: December 10th, 2010 - 9:49pm by Doug Powell

A Jasper County resident died earlier this week from what sounds like shiga-toxin producing E. coli food contamination and health department is investigating other possible cases that might be related to a single family gathering over Thanksgiving weekend.

Jasper County Health Department Director Tony Moehr told the Carthage Press the victim died this week of an extreme case of E. coli and his department is trying to determine what the people who got sick ate at this gathering, adding,

"Sometimes people have symptoms and they get over them in a day or a few days. In rare cases, severe E. coli poisoning can progress to conditions like hemolytic uremic syndrome that can cause the organs to shut down. That more severe form is apparently what happened in this case.”

Moehr said his office has collected the leftover food that remains from that family event. He said a total of 11 people out of 24 people who attended the event have reported some symptoms, including the one person who died.