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Subscribe to RSSThe toll from listeria-tainted cantaloupe climbed higher again on Wednesday, with 139 sickened and 29 dead in the outbreak that may be the deadliest in U.S. history, health officials reported.
In addition to the reported deaths, one pregnant woman had a miscarriage after becoming infected with any of four strains of listeria bacteria linked to whole, fresh cantaloupes from Jensen Farms of Holly, Colo. Reports of illness have been logged in 28 states.
The outbreak is the worst since a California listeria outbreak in 1985 in which contaminated Mexican-style fresh cheese caused 52 deaths, including many stillbirths, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
By other accounts, the cantaloupe crisis may already have matched the adult deaths confirmed in that outbreak. In a New England Journal of Medicine analysis in 1988, investigators said the outbreak caused deaths of 28 adults and newborns and 20 stillbirths or miscarriages.
CDC officials weren't immediately available to comment on the trajectory of the outbreak, which was expected to continue to claim lives and cause illness through the fall. Listeria infections have a long incubation period, so people who ate tainted cantaloupe two months ago may only now be reporting illness, health officials said. The outbreak toll may be slowing, noted Bill Marler, a Seattle food poisoning lawyer who represents several clients sickened by the fruit. But it's still not over.
"I think the hopeful sign is that it's tapering off," he said. "But people are still in the hospital, some in critical condition. Will that number go up? Unfortunately, I think it will."
Dirty equipment, an unsanitary environment and poor storage practicescaused the outbreak at the packing site operated by Jensen Farms, the federal Food and Drug Administration found. It's not clear whether Jensen Farms officials will be required to testify in front of Congress. Members of the Energy and Commerce subcomittee had requested a hearing no later than Thursday, but no hearing has yet been scheduled.
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people regardless of which fruit, melon or veggie you buy, wash the stupid thing! Most of the deaths could have probably been prevented by some using some common sense in the household kitchen. You should actually be bleaching the blades of your knives as well ( 4 parts hot water 1 part bleach ), and make your kids wash their hands before they hit the kitchen after school!
Here's hoping that people like Stinkleton can show us how to achieve perfection in our work; surely he would not be criticizing an under-funded health-oriented agency for this outbreak were he not a nonpareil in his own life.
Again, the consequences and evidence that our government programs to protect its citizens does not function properly, too bad those melons were not served as a lunch item to all of the lazy employees and their families who were responsible to assure the basic health standards. Where do our taxes really go anyway....oh yeah, i forgot, to pay the Chinese loans which keep all Americans unemployed. I say that the farmers who grew the mellons, the regional inspectors and their managers should all be charged with second degree murder and the costs for all of this taken from them.
10 to 1 bet this farm will not be in business next year !!
I would like to know what the route of the entrance into the cantaloupe that the Listeria microbe came through. Whenever I buy a cantaloupe I wash the exterior first with Dawn liquid (my fruits also) rinse well.Inside the cantaloupe I remove the seeds and seed sac,rinse the inside well,peel the edible portion from the exterior skin cover and eat. I do not know persons near me who have had problems if they follow clean habits.Cantaloupes grow out by vine and rest on the ground where any animals run or defecate near (spinach grows low down accessible to animals too). We have to learn to wash our food properly BEFORE consumption.We can't expect the government to do the things that we are responsible to do. The veggies that you buy that are bagged previously to be used in salads? They also should be washed by YOU before use.Take precautions for yourself.Peace.
Our government is soooo thoughrouly corrupt we can't truly know what happened. My money is on the idea that GMO, or some agency testing how to successfully spread death and destruction.
The FDA really messed up.
While preventing the outbreak may have been impossible, diminishing the horrible loss of life was totally within their capability.
After the first person fell ill they sat on their hands. Eventually only suggesting a recall and only ordering a recall 48 days after the first illness was discovered. American taxes paid for the FDA to do nothing but wait. If that's what we're paying for by all means deregulate the FDA.
Furthermore the FDA even allows many of the main causes of listeria in our food including fecal matter. Check it out, though you may not feel comfortable eating ever again: