Woman dies after eating tainted beef

CANADIAN PRESS

MONTREAL-One person has died and another was in hospital yesterday after
handling ground beef contaminated with the E. coli bacteria, public health
officials said.

Officials in Ste-Eustache, northwest of Montreal, said the victim was a
woman in her 80s who died after eating meat bought at a supermarket. She was
one of six people hospitalized in the region this month.

"They were all very sick," Blondin Gauthier of Ste-Eustache health authority
told CTV News. The hospitalized victim was expected to survive. 

It wasn't immediately clear when the woman died, and the scope of the
outbreak had yet to be determined yesterday. 

But the Canadian Food Safety Network, a non-governmental organization, said
the six cases may be the tip of the iceberg. "There could be as many as 30
people sick for every person who reported illness," said official Doug
Powell. 

The Quebec infections occurred July 4-11, and bacteria was traced to a
slaughterhouse.