County to consider comprehensive plan
At their formal meeting Tuesday, Saline County commissioners will get an update on the county's comprehensive plan and consider a resolution endorsing transportation improvements.
The commission meets in formal session at 11 a.m. in Room 107 of the City-County Building.
The commission also will be in session to conduct regular business from 9 a.m. to noon, or until business is concluded, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in Room 209. All sessions, except executive sessions, are open to the public.
View the full agenda at www.saline.org.
Texan injured when truck leaves road
A Livingston, Texas, man was taken to Hays Medical Center for treatment Friday after his pickup truck left Interstate Highway 70 about a mile and a half east of Hays. The hospital said no information about the condition of Thomas C. Martin, 38, could be released.
Martin's truck was westbound on I-70 when he fell asleep about 2:01 p.m. Friday, according to a Kansas Highway Patrol report. The truck left the roadway, coming to rest in the median. Martin was wearing a seat belt, the report said.
Samples provide clues to outbreak
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Workers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta were expected to arrive in Oklahoma on Saturday to help investigate a widespread E. coli outbreak in northeastern Oklahoma.
The outbreak of a rare strain of toxin-producing E. coli O111 has made 206 people sick and killed one man. Most of those who became ill ate at the Country Cottage restaurant in Locust Grove, a town about 50 miles east of Tulsa.
"We now are only seeing just a trickle of new cases being identified, which is a great relief and makes us confident that we have stopped the spread of the outbreak," said Dr. Kristy Bradley, the state's epidemiologist.
The number of people hospitalized with bloody diarrhea, stomach cramps and vomiting in connection with the outbreak dropped to about 20 Friday, Bradley said. That's down from a previous high of 50.
Many of the victims ate at Country Cottage on the weekend of Aug. 15, she said.
Those who are still hospitalized may suffer permanent organ damage and could develop diabetes, Bradley said.
Some of the hospitalized victims are on dialysis for kidney failure. Others are being given plasma treatments and blood transfusions because their red blood cells or organs are being attacked by toxins the E. coli bacteria create, she said.
Bradley said workers have stopped swabbing bacterial samples from the restaurant. Test results should be completed next week, she said, and will give health officials a much clearer idea of which foods or kitchen equipment may have started the contamination.
The state currently has 35 people working on the case, she said. Three workers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as volunteers from the University of Oklahoma and retired state health workers are helping also, Bradley said.
She said the case investigation is of scientific importance.
"We are provided a unique opportunity to really contribute to the overall scientific and medical knowledge about this organism, E. coli O111, because it is unusual to have human outbreaks identified in the United States with this bacteria, and the scope of the outbreak," she said.
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Information from: The Oklahoman, http://www.newsok.com
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