An elderly woman died and at least nine other people were sickened after eating fresh strawberries from an Oregon farm contaminated with E. coli, officials said on Monday. The strawberries were produced at the Jaquith Strawberry Farm in Newberg, Oregon and are sold at farmers' markets and roadside stands, said the state's public health division. Officials stressed that strawberries sold at supermarkets are not linked to the outbreak, which has caused illnesses in several northwest Oregon counties. An 85 year-old woman died from kidney failure associated with the infection, officials said. Among the other nine confirmed cases, four individuals were hospitalized. State health officials believe that another six people who developed an E. coli infection could be part of the outbreak. There are about 265,000 infections from E. Coli every year in the United States, and about 36 percent of them come from the strain known as Escherichia coli 0157:H7 that Oregon officials blame for this latest outbreak, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
