Eleven Ohio University students in Athens have laboratory-confirmed infections with Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, and investigators still do not know where they were exposed. The Athens City-County Health Department and Ohio University confirmed the count in a joint announcement on Friday, Nov. 13, up from four confirmed cases first announced on Nov. 11, the university said in its OHIO Alerts update.
Every case identified so far involves a student on the university’s Athens campus, according to the joint announcement from the health department and the university, which the Athens County Independent published in full. No source has been identified.
Together, university officials and the health department are working to identify possible exposures, determine whether the cases share a common source, and assess whether there is an ongoing risk, the joint announcement said. Details such as when people became ill, where they spent time, and what they ate in the days before symptoms began can help investigators determine whether the cases are connected, the announcement said.
Health Commissioner Dr. Carl T. Ortman told WOUB Public Media that a team is conducting interviews with the affected students to try to determine where they might have been exposed and whether their activities overlap in a way that suggests a common source, Food Poisoning Bulletin reported. The joint announcement was signed by Ortman and by Dr. Ken Johnson, the university’s vice president of health affairs, the Athens County Independent reported.
Shiga toxin-producing E. coli — STEC — can spread through contaminated food or water, contact with animals, or from person to person, the health department said in the joint announcement. Washing hands thoroughly with soap and water after using the restroom and before eating or preparing food can help prevent the spread of infection, the announcement said.
The symptoms are the warning signs students are being asked to watch for. They can include severe stomach cramps and diarrhea, which may be bloody, and some people also experience vomiting or a low fever, the joint announcement said. Symptoms usually begin three to four days after exposure and can take up to 10 days to appear, the announcement said.
The department and the university encouraged students and members of the broader Athens community to keep monitoring their health and to seek medical care if they develop symptoms, according to the joint announcement. The Columbus Dispatch also reported the investigation on Nov. 13, confirming the rise from four cases to at least 11.
The scale is what makes the cluster unusual for Athens County. Bill Marler’s Marler Blog, summarizing the joint release, noted that Ohio reported 649 STEC cases in all of 2024 — roughly the number a county of Athens County’s size would expect to see only three or four of in an entire year. Eleven confirmed cases in one student population in a matter of days is a cluster, not background noise, which is why the interview work matters.
The calendar adds pressure to the investigation. Thanksgiving falls on Nov. 26 this year, and when students leave Athens for home they become harder to interview and re-interview, the Marler Blog noted in its summary of the joint release — one more reason the exposure interviews happening now, while the students are still on campus, are the investigation’s best window.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What is confirmed, from the joint announcement: 11 laboratory-confirmed cases, all Ohio University students, no source identified, and an active investigation by the health department and the university. What is not yet public: the serotype of the strain, the students’ onset dates, and any common food, water or venue exposure — the facts that would tell Athens whether this is a single-source outbreak or a wider spread. Campus life in Athens continues around the investigation, as NewsForce247 covered in our report on the Ohio women’s basketball team’s first loss and Marietta’s Shrine Tournament win in the same region.
What happens next is the investigation itself: the interview and exposure work in Athens will either converge on a common source or widen, and the health department and the university have said they will continue working together to identify it. Students who develop the symptoms described above should seek care promptly, the announcement said.