US Food safety experts probe Salmonella Poisoning Outbreaks
Pastor Dale Morgan
US Food safety experts probe Salmonella Poisoning Outbreaks*
Mon Jun 16, 2008 7:03pm EDT
By Lisa Baertlein
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - U.S. food safety officials on Monday said they
hope that a cluster of nine cases of Salmonella poisoning yields clues
that lead them to the source of an outbreak that has sickened 277 people
in 28 states.
David Acheson, director of food safety for the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration, said the cluster is confined to a single geographic
location and that all of the sickened individuals appeared to have eaten
similar types of tomatoes.
"It's essentially a very solid lead for us," Acheson said, in a
conference call with reporters.
Acheson and other officials declined to say whether the cluster they
were referring to were nine cases reported by the Chicago Department of
Health.
Those individuals reportedly ate at two restaurants from the same
restaurant chain, according to published reports, which did not name the
company. The FDA also declined to identify the eateries involved saying
the information was confidential.
A Chicago Department of Health spokesman was not immediately available
for comment.
U.S. food safety officials said they continue to believe that the
outbreak is not linked to a single restaurant or grocery store chain.
McDonald's Corp, the world's largest restaurant chain, said over the
weekend that its U.S. restaurants would resume serving tomatoes.
FDA has identified dozens of states and countries whose producers'
tomatoes are not linked to the outbreak -- primarily because they were
not supplying fruit during the time when people were becoming ill.
The safe list includes California, which is now a major producer,
northern Florida and Baja California in Mexico.
Health officials linked the outbreak to raw plum, Roma and round
tomatoes and continue to warn consumers to avoid those tomatoes if they
come from producers not yet cleared by FDA.
Investigators continue to focus on product from other parts of Mexico
and Florida since they were the major tomato suppliers at the time of
the outbreak. They have not seen any positive results for Salmonella,
Acheson said.
Salmonella Saintpaul, the bacterial strain responsible for the current
outbreak, is uncommon, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control
which sees about 400 Saintpaul infections in humans each year.
Last year there were about 25 reported U.S. cases of Salmonella
Saintpaul with the same genetic fingerprint as that seen in the current
outbreak, CDC spokeswoman Lola Russell said.
The Mexican government said last week that Salmonella Saintpaul has
never been found in their country.
Acheson said U.S. officials are discussing that statement and posing
other outbreak-related questions to representatives from Mexico.
Salmonella bacteria are frequently the culprit for food-borne illnesses.
Symptoms of infection include fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and
abdominal pain and generally appear within 12 hours to 72 hours of
eating tainted food.
Infants, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems are more
likely than others to develop severe illness.
Salmonella infections commonly result from eating food that has been
contaminated by animal feces, but it is also caused by human feces.
(Editing by Leslie Gevirtz)