Over 500 sick after E Coli outbreak spreads at Tennessee adventure park

At least 548 people reported gastrointestinal sickness after visiting the CLIMB Works canopy tour

Colonies of E. coli bacteria grown on a Hektoen enteric (HE) agar plate are seen in a microscopic image courtesy of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC). (REUTERS)

Hundreds of people who visited a zipline destination in Tennessee have fallen ill with gastrointestinal sicknesses.

Investigators are working to determine the exact cause of a suspected E coli outbreak at the CLIMB Works zipline canopy tour in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, after at least 548 visitors reported being unwell after zip lining at the park.

“At this time, we cannot point to one simple cause of this outbreak,” John Dunn, a state epidemiologist for the Tennessee Department of Health, said in a news release. ”Preliminary testing and environmental health assessments indicate the water system at the zipline facility may have contributed to the outbreak; however, there are likely other sources involved in the spread of the illnesses, including contaminated surfaces and person-to-person transmission."

The ziplining park closed a well which investigators believe may have been contaminated with the E coli bacterium. It is now supplying visitors with bottled water, while keeping the park open, as the Tennessee Health Department continues its probe.

However, it remains unclear how exactly the E coli outbreak was able to spread so quickly throughout the park.

“Water testing has indicated fecal contamination of the facility’s water system,” Mr Dunn continued. “Additional preliminary testing has identified enteropathogenic E coli. Testing of clinical and environmental samples is still underway to look for bacterial, viral and parasitic organisms. It’s important to note that while norovirus is reliably identified in stool samples during outbreak investigations, identifying it in food, water and the environment is more challenging.”

At least 548 people responded to a Tennessee Health Department survey saying they experienced gastrointestinal illness after visiting the zipline destination. The survey was sent out to 2,000 people, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel, in an effort to determine how visitors became sick.

The CLIMB Works canopy tour is providing refunds to visitors who subsequently became ill, according to the group’s Facebook posts. Several visitors wrote on the social media platform about suffering sicknesses after ziplining at the adventure park.

"The tour itself was fine. We had a group of 8 for the mountaintop tour on Saturday morning. By Sunday afternoon, 6/8 (including a 9 and 11-year-old) of us were throwing up and terribly sick and could not figure out why,” Emily Oney, a visitor at CLIMB Works, wrote in a Facebook review for the park on July 3.

"Upon further investigation, I found a review online from Sunday where more families were claiming to be sick from the contaminated coolers of water on the course. Do not drink the water here. CLIMB Works should make this right with all the families that were affected by this."