16 E. coli cases now tied to Huntley High School outbreak; 2 students hospitalized

Sixteen cases of E. coli were tied to September’s outbreak at Huntley High School, according to a McHenry County Department of Health report released Thursday.

That includes two students who were hospitalized, according to the report.

Based on information from the health department and Huntley School District 158 at the time, the Northwest Herald had reported there were nine cases tied to the high school.

More recently, the health department’s website was updated to revealed there were 17 cases of E. coli sickness reported in the county in September.

When asked by the Northwest Herald earlier this month if those cases were “all connected to the Huntley High School E. coli outbreak,” officials said, “They are not” and referred to the not-yet-released report.

That report now indicates that all but one of the 17 cases were tied to Huntley High students or staff.

Of those 16 cases, 15 of them were in students or staff who ate from the high school cafeteria during the school day, according to the report.

A station where cold sub sandwiches were made in the cafeteria was specifically cited as being associated with the illnesses.

Six individuals went to the emergency room with symptoms, and two were hospitalized, according to the report. Of the 16 cases, none were cafeteria staff, but a cafeteria food handler tested positive for STEC, according to the report.

Although the cases were slightly clustered, with seven classes having two cases each, cases came from all lunch hours. Cases increased later on in the day, with three cases originating in the first lunch hour, five cases in the second and six cases in the third.

More than 1,500 students and staff were interviewed by health department staff or by the survey the health department put out. Enrollment at Huntley High School is almost 3,000.

“In this illness outbreak, the likeliest scenario is that the infected food handler failed to wash their hands correctly, or thoroughly enough or frequently enough, which resulted in contamination of either surfaces (trays, utensils, food packaging, etc.) or food items at the cold sub sandwich station and cookie station,” according to the report.

However, there is a “clear culture of hand-washing among the food handlers,” according to the report.

“Once introduced into HHS, STEC was transmitted primarily through the HHS cafeteria,” according to the report.

District 158 Interim Superintendent Jessica Lombard shared a link to the report with Huntley High School parents and staff Thursday, along with a statement saying: “Our hearts go out to all of those who were impacted by this outbreak, especially the students who became seriously ill. This was an unfortunate situation that resulted in unintentional consequences.

“The well-being of our students and staff is our top priority. We will continue to partner with [the McHenry County Department of Health] to do everything possible to ensure health and safety, including reinforcing safe food-handling and sanitation practices in our cafeterias, and add layers of oversight as proactive measures at all Huntley [District] 158 school cafeterias.”

The McHenry County health department did not share the report or its findings – including total case count –until Wednesday, Denise Barr, District 158 director of communication and public engagement, said in an email Thursday.

The district does not contract with outside vendors for food service, which operates in-house.