E. coli, spinach linked in Md.

3 cases in children confirmed

woman's death investigated

"I will not eat spinach or frozen spinach or any leafy green vegetables now," said Diane Vincent, who spoke outside a grocery store not far from Dunning's home.

"Everybody I know eats the bagged spinach," she said. "I had tons of it in my freezer."

Not any more. She threw it all out.

Fred Burger, 67, a resident of Durban, South Africa, who is visiting his son in Hagerstown, said he got sick Sept. 11, a day after he ate a spinach salad in a Pennsylvania hotel not far from Hagerstown. "I ate it down to the last leaf."

"It could only have been that salad because I normally have a very strong stomach," he said.

Gourdine said most healthy adults infected by E. coli survive the diarrhea and cramps and recover within a week without medical attention. But the elderly and very young are particularly vulnerable.

Some - 17 percent in the current outbreak - develop a potentially fatal form of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS).

As of yesterday, officials said, there were 27 cases of HUS.

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Sun reporter Chris Emery contributed to this article, reporting from Hagerstown.