Three patients at a Kansas hospital, who developed a food-borne illness after eating Blue Bell ice cream contaminated with listeria, have died. However, health officials announced on Saturday that the illness was only a contributing factor to their deaths since the patients were already sickly.

"These people had been in and out of the hospital for other reasons," Sara Belfry, spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, told the Los Angeles Times. "This was a contributing cause, not the only cause."

In total, five people in the state were infected with life-threatening listeriosis, which is caused by eating food tainted with the bacteria Listeria monocytogenes. Symptoms include fever, muscle aches and diarrhea. However, the disease is treatable with antibiotics.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), four of the victims drank milkshakes last month made with a single serving of Blue Bell's Scoops ice cream at the hospital, a finding "that strongly suggests their infections were acquired in the hospital," reports Fox News. The CDC added that all of the individuals were being treated in the same hospital for unrelated conditions.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stated that the outbreak was linked to tainted products made on a production line at the Blue Bell Creameries plant in Brenham, Texas.

The agency found three strains of the bacteria in Blue Bell Chocolate Chip Country Cookies, Great Divide Bars, Sour Pop Green Apple Bars, Cotton Candy Bars, Scoops, Vanilla Stick Slices, Almond Bars and No Sugar Added Moo Bars.

"One of our machines produced a limited amount of frozen snacks with a potential listeria problem," Blue Bell said in a statement, according to Time. "When this was detected all products produced by this machine were withdrawn. Our Blue Bell team members recovered all involved products in stores and storage. This withdrawal in no way includes our half gallons, quarts, pints, cups, three gallon ice cream or the majority of take-home frozen snack novelties."

Although the CDC says Blue Bell has removed potentially contaminated products from the market, it warned that "contaminated ice cream products may still be in the freezers of consumers, institutions, and retailers."

Following the outbreak, the company had its first product recall in its 108-year history.