CDC is collaborating with public health officials in many states, the Indian Health Service, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to investigate an ongoing multi-state outbreak of human Salmonella serotype Saintpaul infections.
An initial epidemiologic investigation comparing foods eaten by ill and well persons identified consumption of raw tomatoes as strongly linked to illness.
Recently, many clusters of illnesses have been identified in several states among persons who ate at restaurants. These clusters led us to broaden the investigation to be sure that it encompasses food items that are commonly consumed with tomatoes. Fresh tomatoes, fresh hot chili peppers such as jalapeños, and fresh cilantro are the lead hypotheses. However, at this point in the investigation, we can neither directly implicate one of these ingredients as the single source, nor discard any as a possible source.
Since April, 971 persons infected with Salmonella Saintpaul with the same genetic fingerprint have been identified in 40 states, the District of Columbia, and Canada.
These were identified because clinical laboratories in all states send Salmonella strains from ill persons to their State public health laboratory for characterization. No new states report ill persons.
The number of ill persons identified in each state is as follows: Alabama (2 p
ersons), Arkansas (10), Arizona (45), California (8), Colorado (12), Connecticut (4), Florida (2), Georgia (24), Idaho (4), Illinois (93), Indiana (14), Iowa (2), Kansas (17), Kentucky (1), Louisiana (1), Maine (1), Maryland (29), Massachusetts (22), Michigan (7), Minnesota (8), Missouri (12), New Hampshire (4), Nevada (11), New Jersey (9), New Mexico (98), New York (28), North Carolina (10), Ohio (7), Oklahoma (23), Oregon (10), Pennsylvania (8), Rhode Island (3), South Carolina (1), Tennessee (8), Texas (381), Utah (2), Virginia (29), Vermont (2), Washington (4), Wisconsin (10), and the District of Columbia (1). Four ill persons are reported from Canada; three appear to have been infected while traveling in the United States, and one illness remains under investigation.Among the 693 persons with information available, illnesses began between April 10 and June 26, 2008, including 258 who became ill on June 1 or later. Many steps must occur between a person becoming ill and the determination that the illness was caused by the outbreak strain of Salmonella; these steps take an average of 2-3 weeks. Therefore, an illness reported today may have begun 2-3 weeks ago.
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it is AMAZING how far we've come in so many arenas-----and yet are entirely befuddled by this.
ReplyDeleteMiz.
The important distinction of this blog is that salmonella Saintpaul may be coming from food other than tomatoes. Of course, we need the FDA and CDC to narrow DOWN the suspects, not expand them.
ReplyDeleteHi Bruce - yes you are right - FDA and CDC have to narrow this down but how can they do that without expanding it when no produce has turned anything up yet? It is very scary to know our food is not safe to eat and the organizations in charge of overseeing this action cannot do it BEFORE people are infected with salmonella.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the thoughtful comment, Bruce.