Subway Restaurant Shigella Outbreak -Chicago -2010
At least 116 people have been culture confirmed with Shigella sonnei infections apparently contracted at a Chicago-area Subway restaurant in March of 2010. Ten were hospitalized. Health authorities closed the restaurant at 1009 E. Roosevelt in Lombard and launched an investigation into the source of the outbreak. The investigation revealed that generally poor hygienic conditions and workers carrying the Shigella bacteria were to blame for the outbreak.
Shigella is a bacterium that can cause sudden and severe diarrhea (gastroenteritis) in humans. Shigellosis is the name of the disease that Shigella causes. The illness is also known as “bacillary dysentery.” A person can contract shigellosis by ingesting only a few organisms, which makes shigellosis the most communicable of the bacterial-induced diarrheas.
Marler Clark was contacted by a number of people sickened at the restaurant. On March 9, the law firm filed its first suit related to the outbreak on behalf of a family whose son became infected with Shigella after eating at the Lombard Subway.
On October 17. 2011 Marler Clark filed a lawsuit on behalf of 70 others who were sickened in the outbreak.
More information on Shigella can be found at Marler Clark’s website www.about-shigella.com