WASHINGTON — An outbreak of listeria in cantaloupe is now linked to 23 deaths, making it the deadliest known outbreak of foodborne illness in the U.S. in more than 25 years.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday that 116 people have been sickened in the outbreak, including those who died. The number of deaths has now surpassed a 1998 outbreak of listeria in processed meats that was linked to 21 deaths. A 1985 listeria outbreak in Mexican-style soft cheeses killed 52 people.

The tainted Colorado cantaloupes should be off store shelves by now, as they were recalled mid-September and their shelf life is about two weeks. But the number of deaths may continue to grow, as the symptoms of listeria can take up to two months to appear.

The CDC on Wednesday confirmed two more deaths in Louisiana that the state had said it was investigating last week. Other deaths have been reported in Colorado, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming. Colorado and New Mexico reported five deaths each.

Jensen Farms in Holly, Colo., recalled the tainted cantaloupes earlier this month after they were linked to the listeria illnesses. The Food and Drug Administration, which is investigating the outbreak, has said state health officials found listeria in cantaloupes taken from Colorado grocery stores and from a victim’s home that were grown at Jensen Farms. Matching strains of the disease were found on equipment and cantaloupe samples at Jensen Farms’ packing facility in Granada, Colo.

The company has said it shipped the cantaloupes to about half the states, but added that it wasn’t sure where the cantaloupes went because they have been sold and resold. Thus, many companies may not even know whether they bought or distributed the fruit.

The FDA is still investigating the cause of the outbreak. Officials have said they were looking at the farm’s water supply and possible animal intrusions among other things to figure out the source of the problem. Listeria bacteria grow in moist, muddy conditions and often are carried by animals.

Government health officials said this was the first known outbreak of listeria in cantaloupe. Listeria generally is found in processed meats and unpasteurized milk and cheese, though there have been a growing number of outbreaks in produce.

Listeria is rare but more deadly than well-known pathogens such as salmonella and E. coli. While most healthy adults can consume listeria with no ill effects, it can kill the elderly and those with compromised immune systems. The CDC said the median age of those sickened is 78, and most ill people are over 60 years old.

It is also dangerous to pregnant women because it easily passes through to the fetus. CDC said it is also aware of one miscarriage associated with the outbreak.

Symptoms include fever and muscle aches, often with other gastrointestinal symptoms.

The CDC has reported illnesses in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Colorado has the most illnesses with 34, while Texas has reported 17, New Mexico 13 and Oklahoma 11.

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Online:

CDC on cantaloupe outbreak: http://www.cdc.gov/listeria/index.html

FDA on cantaloupe recall: http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodSafety/CORENetwork/ucm272372.htm

Center for Science and the Public Interest, “Super Safe Your Kitchen”:http://www.cspinet.org/new/pdf/safekitchen.pdf

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Find Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MCJalonick

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Listeria courtesy of Wikipedia

As reported by WebMD, the recent listeria outbreak linked to contaminated cantaloupe is now the second largest outbreak of listeriosis on record.  Cases have piled up week after week, and now over 100 confirmed cases have been linked to the outbreak, including 21 deaths and a miscarriage.

Listeriosis is an extremely dangerous foodborne illness that particularly targets pregnant women, children, and the elderly. In this case, it is still unclear how the bacteria found its way onto the surface of the tainted melons, but any number of environmental sources (soil, water, animals) could be to blame.

It is unlikely that any of the affected  cantaloupe are still in stores or in consumers’ homes, as the expected shelf-life of those melons came and went weeks ago. However, symptoms can take weeks to present themselves, so additional cases could continue to  mount up.

Food handlers can do their part to prevent the spread of foodborne illness by learning, and following safe food handling principles, but even then, we often rely on the food infrastructure to provide us with clean, wholesome ingredients. Let’s hope that this outbreak runs its course soon, and remember to wash all fruits and vegetables before they are eaten.

Officials say people attending two separate business conferences came down with the sickness. They believe the outbreak is over, but they still want everyone to be careful and report suspected cases. Read more….

(image courtesy of CDC, poor MSPaint job courtesy of me)

Ok, norovirus, we at StateFoodSafety.com have never been fans of you and your nasty, infectious behavior, but we’ve mostly kept our polite distance. But now? Now you’ve crossed a line that can’t be uncrossed.

Last weekend, one of our own was slammed by a norovirus outbreak while on vacation in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  He and 27 (!) members of his extended family were incapacitated by this nasty foodborne virus at a family reunion. Severe abdominal cramps, fever, vomiting, and diarrhea spread through the family, leaving incapacitated bodies in its wake. “People were lying all over the floor,” he tells us, “We had to puke in tupperware containers because the bathrooms were constantly being used.”

It looks like he and his family weren’t your only victims, as the Jackson Hole Daily reports:

An individual who became ill June 23 reported it to public health, Response Coordinator Tammy Marshall said. A physician reported another several cases of gastroenteritis the next day, prompting an investigation.

On June 29, public health received confirmation that the clusters of illness were norovirus. Marshall hesitated to offer a specific number of cases, since many of them were not officially reported. “Widespread activity” is happening in Jackson, Teton Village and the neighboring national parks, she said.

“It’s kind of known as the summer diarrhea,” she said. “I do believe activity this summer is higher.”

Norovirus, we’re putting you on notice! We won’t rest until every food service worker knows and follows proper hand-washing procedures! We won’t stop fighting until every manager knows to exclude food workers demonstrating symptoms of a norovirus infection! We won’t let you rampage through the gastrointestinal tracts of our loved ones with impunity! This. Means. War.

The U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) has successfully identified the culprit in a recent multi-state outbreak of typhoid fever:  sapote fruit.  Called “mamey” fruit in the U.S., the grapefruit-size Sapote is grown commonly in Mexico and has a sweet, juicy pulp commonly used in ice creams and milkshakes.  The CDC became involved when local health departments in California and Nevada began reporting consumers infected with typhoid fever.  About 400 Americans become ill with typhoid fever annually, most while traveling in South America.  This scenario was strange because the infected persons had not been outside the United States when they contracted the disease.

CDC officials report that frozen sapote fruit pulp, used in milkshakes consumed by every person involved in the outbreak, was infected with Salmonella Typhi–more commonly known as typhoid fever.  The distributor, Goya Foods, Inc., has recalled its 14oz bags of Sapote (mamey) Fruit Pulp which were distributed in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Washington.   Unfortunately (and curiously) additional information is not available on the distributor’s website.

On April 20, 2010, a section of British Petroleum’s (BP) Deepwater Horizon underwater oil pipeline burst, gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico.  Since the initial incident, it has been difficult for experts and BP officials to determine how much oil has been and continues to spill into the gulf, although some experts put the number at well over a million gallons every day.  During the explosion of the pipeline, eleven men lost their lives.  Since then, countless people involved in the gulf seafood, tourism, and hospitality industries  have watched the spill threaten their livelihoods and even their health.

The safety of seafood from the Gulf of Mexico has been a major health concern since the spill.  The seafood industry around the gulf–and its impact on local restaurants, hotels, and other seafood vendors–amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars annually.  In fact, sales from seafood in the five states bordering the Gulf of Mexico totaled $662 million in 2008.   Due to the size and duration of the spill, and the fish and shellfish that may be living in such toxic waters, the security of the entire gulf seafood industry is in jeopardy.

Monday, in a press conference from a Louisiana spill sight, President Obama declared Gulf seafood currently safe for consumption (he even admitted to eating some for lunch!).  However, some food safety experts haven’t always been so confident.  In April, shortly after the oil rig exploded, officials from the FDA, EPA, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration went to the gulf to collect samples of fish and shellfish which they found to be relatively free from oil–however safety testing is ongoing.  Regions of the gulf where fish have tested highly contaminated have been closed for fishing in order to protect the public.  Those regions will not re-open until the seafood there is determined by authorities to be free from contaminants.

Restaurants and consumers nationwide need not be concerned.  More than 83% of all seafood is imported into the United States, including 90% of all shrimp.  However, the financial impact on seafood vendors around the spill cannot be estimated until experts have a clearer idea of just how massive the spill will become–and how soon it can be stopped.

Photo Credit:  Rich Matthews, AP

The Washington Post published an interesting article this morning, spotlighting the recent E. coli outbreak associated with pre-cut, bagged lettuce that infected 23 people in four states during March and April of this year.  The lettuce was not purchased by consumers, but rather by several food service companies and supermarkets as part of their salad bars and prepared meals.  In fact, the majority of infected people were students at colleges in Michigan, Ohio, and New York who consumed the lettuce at their college dining halls.  This issue brings up an interesting question, however:  Are pre-cut, bagged vegetables more dangerous than whole vegetables?

First, how could E. coli, which is generally associated with animal feces, infect vegetables?  According to Caroline Smith De Wall, the food safety director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, “The process of harvesting lettuce, chopping it or tearing, washing and putting it in a bag is a process similar to mixing ground beef.”  As any food handler should know, ground beef is potentially more hazardous than whole beef because bacteria on the outside of the meat is mixed into the center during the grinding process.  The same is true for lettuce, and other leafy greens which are grown in fertilized soil.  Fertilizer is largely composed of animal feces, and therefore is full of E. coli and other contaminants.  So when vegetables are processed for packaging, greens from multiple farmers’ fields (both contaminated and uncontaminated) may be tossed in and cut together–infecting all the produce.

Still, there are strong arguments on both sides of this debate.  Those who believe bagged vegetables are more dangerous argue that chlorine spray used to clean the produce before it is packaged does not kill enough of the bacteria.  Whereas when consumers purchase whole vegetables, they will commonly remove the outer leaves, thus physically removing the majority of potentially infectious bacteria.

James Gorny, senior advisor for produce safety at the FDA disagrees with the idea the bagged produce is more dangerous.  He stated that “bagged greens represent a disproportionate number of recalls, chiefly because they’re easier to identify than whole produce.  When you buy a head of lettuce, you have no idea what the brand name is, or who the grower is–so tracing it back is that much harder.”  Essentially he is stating that because the source of contaminated bagged vegetables is so much clearer than for whole vegetables, complaints about foodborne illness for those products is much higher.  In addition, it is much easier for health department officials to trace the source of the infection for packaged produce, and so it often appears as though pre-cut vegetables are more dangerous, even though they may not be.

Unfortunately there is no clear statistic proving that either whole or pre-cut vegetables are more dangerous.  In order to keep your patrons, family, and employees safe at the salad bar–wash your veggies.  Even if the bag states “pre-washed” it is always a good idea to rinse your leafy greens and vegetables that will be served as ready-to-eat items.  There are also several vegetable washes on the market that may be advisable for households with at-risk individuals.  For additional guidance, contact your health department.

This week marks the first anniversary of the identification of the H1N1 virus,or Swine Flu, that first became an epidemic across the United States before quickly  spreading into a full-blown global outbreak.  The most recent studies state that  14,286 people around the world lost their lives to H1N1 during 2009-2010.  Although the premature deaths of so many people is incredibly tragic, the United States government has been able to take advantage of our actions over the last year in order to assess our current ability to combat threats–both biological and man-made.

According to a press release from the USDHH Preparedness and Response, our goal is to supplement our vaccination technology in order to research, develop, and distribute more quickly and efficiently.  This will allow the USDHH to supply life-saving vaccines to sick populations more quickly and effectively.  As expressed by Sec. Kathleen Sebelius, a crucial element in this will be identifying how our response teams would respond to both known threats and unknown threats that may arise.

In responding to H1N1, as many of you are surely aware, vaccines where in short supply.  Worse yet, some vaccines did little or nothing to combat the ever-changing virus.  It is good to know that USDHH is aware of the mistakes that were made and can view this scenario as a learning opportunity so that if, heaven forbid, there is a “next time” we’ll be ready.

Check out the entire press release at flu.gov.

There have been a total of 184 people in 38 states who have gotten sick from tainted salami, although it’s unknown whether it is the spices or the meat itself that contains the bacteria.

Bottom line:  stick to the BLT for a while.

Don't eat this floor--it's made of Salami!

Photo Credit: www.wimdelvoye.be

Wes Studi, the American Indian actor pictured below, is helping to get the word out.  Take Wes’ advice and get your family vaccinated.  Also, please note that children 9 years of age and younger will need TWO doses of the flu vaccine.

"The best way to protect yourself, your family and your community is to get vaccinated against seasonal and H1N1 flu." -Wes Studi, quote for HHS

Click HERE to find out where you can locate the vaccine.

Photo Credit:  www.aaanativearts.com