Twelve people became ill after attending a holiday lunch held at a hotel on December 4 in St. Paul, Minnesota. No one was hospitalized and no one died. Three of 6 stool specimens were positive for enteroaggregative E. coli. By univariate analysis, consuming Black Forest ham and Liptauer chive cheese wrap was significantly associated with illness (12 of 12 cases vs. 11 of 8 controls; odds ratio [OR], undefined; 95% confidence interval [CI], undefined; p=0.02.

City of St. Paul Environmental health sanitarians interviewed 12 hotel employees, and one reported recent gastrointestinal illness. The employee reported becoming ill on November 30 with diarrhea and cramping and recovered on December 1. The employee worked on December 4 but reported job duties of taking out the trash and cleaning and did not prepare food.

Enteroaggregative E. coli is thought to be a human-only pathogen suggesting that a food item in the Black Forest ham and Liptauer chive cheese wrap was contaminated by an infected food worker either at the restaurant or from a human source prior to the restaurant meal. However, the original source of contamination was not identified.