Prominent Cases of Waterborne E. coli Infection

• The worst E. coli outbreak ever was in Japan in 1996. Nearly 6,000 residents of Sakai City were infected after white radish sprouts were washed with contaminated water. Three children died as a result of the infection.

• In August 1999, more than 900 people were infected with E. coli after drinking unchlorinated well water used to make beverages and ice at the Washington County Fair near Albany, New York. Two people died after drinking the water contaminated by manure washed into the well from a nearby barn.

• In 1998, 26 children playing at a water park outside Atlanta became sick from E. coli. State health experts blamed fecal contamination in the water. All those who became ill had swallowed pool water containing the bacteria.
  
  
• More than 200 people became ill after eating or drinking contaminated food and water at the Cornstock Festival in Petersburg, Illinois, in Fall 1999. The event was held in a cow pasture.