--- title: Four More People Have Died in Romaine E. Coli Outbreak description: Four more deaths have been reported in connection with the romaine lettuce E. coli outbreak, the CDC says. Five people have died in total. canonical: https://time.com/5298504/romaine-e-coli-deaths/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-06-01T14:49:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T20:26:48.574Z article:section: Health og:title: Four More People Have Died From the Romaine Lettuce E. Coli Outbreak og:description: The total death count is five og:url: https://time.com/5298504/romaine-e-coli-deaths/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee0cb74e1554e5b9/6989321c97cdffcf026b5671/romaine-lettuce.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Romaine lettuce og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Four More People Have Died From the Romaine Lettuce E. Coli Outbreak twitter:description: The total death count is five twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee0cb74e1554e5b9/6989321c97cdffcf026b5671/romaine-lettuce.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 4 More People Have Died From the Romaine Lettuce E. Coli Outbreak  by [Jamie Ducharme](/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Jun 1, 2018 2:49 PM CUT  Romaine lettuce on white background Romaine lettuce on white backgroundClaudia Totir—Getty Images  by [Jamie Ducharme](/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Jun 1, 2018 2:49 PM CUT Tainted lettuce may be off store shelves, but the ramifications of the nationwide [romaine E. coli outbreak](http://time.com/money/5246792/romaine-lettuce-e-coli/ "undefined") aren’t over yet. Four more deaths have been reported in connection with the outbreak, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) [update released Friday](https://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/2018/o157h7-04-18/index.html "undefined"). Two people from Minnesota, one person from Arkansas and one person from New York have died, according to the update. The [first death associated with the outbreak](http://time.com/5263454/romaine-lettuce-e-coli-death/ "undefined"), a person in California, was reported in early May. Twenty-five more illnesses have also been reported since the [CDC’s last update](https://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/2018/o157h7-04-18/index.html "undefined"), bringing the total to 197 people sickened in 35 states. Nearly half of those who got sick have been hospitalized, and 26 developed a type of [kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome](http://time.com/5278141/e-coli-lawsuit/ "undefined"). Those [rates are unusually high](http://time.com/5254800/cdc-romaine-lettuce-hospitalization-rate/ "undefined") for E. coli, a bacterial infection that typically results in gastrointestinal distress that clears within about a week. The CDC stresses, however, that most of the newly reported cases involve people who fell ill two to three weeks ago, when contaminated lettuce from the Yuma, Ariz., area was still available to consumers. (Some people also got sick after “close contact” with an infected individual.) Yuma’s harvest season is now over and lettuce previously harvested from that area is now past its shelf life, so contaminated romaine is likely no longer available in grocery stores or restaurants, the CDC says. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5298504/romaine-e-coli-deaths/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5298504/romaine-e-coli-deaths/"},"headline":"4 More People Have Died From the Romaine Lettuce E. 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