Boston Chipotle Shut Down After 30 BC Students Get Sick
BOSTON (CBS) - A Chipotle restaurant has been shut down due to what could be an E. coli outbreak at Boston College.
The college says 80 students, including members of the men's basketball team, have complained of gastrointestinal symptoms including vomiting and diarrhea.
Update: 80 Boston College Students Sickened
They all had eaten at the Chipotle restaurant in Cleveland Circle over this past weekend.
Boston College sent out a health alert that said, "Students who are experiencing these gastrointestinal symptoms are encouraged to seek medical care either at BC Health Services or from their own physician."
WBZ-TV's Dr. Mallika Marshall says in very rare cases, E. coli can cause severe anemia, kidney failure and sometimes death.
"Actually one of our friends was in the infirmary with a concussion and she said when she walked out there were like ten people in the waiting room," said BC student Stephanie Lord. "All with buckets all throwing up from Chipotle."
At least one Boston University student said she got sick too. "I just went to eat here this past weekend and I got really sick yesterday so this is the first time I left my house I was wondering what was happening over here," she said.
The state's Department of Public Health is now investigating. It has not yet been determined if those illnesses are related to the national outbreak of E. coli at Chipotle.
Workers were busy cleaning the entire restaurant Monday night.
In a statement, Chipotle said: "The safety and well being of our customers is always our highest priority, so our restaurant at Cleveland Circle in Boston is temporarily closed while we work with local health officials to investigate a number of illnesses among Boston College students. We do not have any evidence to suggest that this incident is related the previous E. coli incident. There are no confirmed cases of E. coli connected to Chipotle in Massachusetts."
Read: FDA Investigates Outbreak
The FDA still has not determined which food item at Chipotle might be making people sick.
Chipotle shut down restaurants in Washington and Oregon when the outbreak first started. Those have since reopened.
