Washington woman files lawsuit against Chipotle, saying she got E. coli after eating one of its burritos



SEATTLE (AP) -- A woman has filed a lawsuit against Chipotle, claiming she contracted an E.coli infection after eating a burrito bowl Oct. 21 at a Chipotle restaurant in Vancouver.

Charmaine Mode, of   Kelso, Washington, filed the lawsuit Tuesday through Minneapolis law firm PritzkerOlsen in U.S. District Court in Western Washington in Seattle. Documents say she sought treatment Oct. 27 after falling ill on Oct. 25 with nausea, severe diarrhea and other symptoms.

Three people in the Portland area and 19 people in Western Washington have gotten sick with E. coli as of Friday. Seventeen of them had eaten at a Chipotle restaurant during the past few weeks. Eight people have been hospitalized but no deaths have been reported.

The Washington state epidemiologist says more people are being tested for E. coli in Washington state as health officials work to track down the source of an outbreak linked to Chipotle restaurants in the Pacific Northwest.

The official count of people sickened remained at 22 on Monday afternoon, but Dr. Scott Lindquist says about a dozen more people are being tested for the illness in Washington.

Lindquist says he does not expect the number of sick people to increase dramatically, but he said they are not positive yet that the outbreak is limited to people who ate at Chipotle restaurants over the past few weeks. Two people among the 22 cases have told health officials they do not believe they ate at a Chipotle restaurant.

Health officials are aggressively searching for more cases and are trying to find out what the restaurants connected with the outbreak have in common.

Chipotle's stock fell as much as 5 percent early Monday, but recovered slightly, and was down about 3 percent by Monday afternoon.