Death toll may be as high as 10 in listeria outbreak
Bobby Krishna
The death toll in the 15-state listeria outbreak linked to cantaloupe from Colorado may now be as high as 10; at least 60 people have been reported ill.
Julia Schmalz, USA TODAY
Consumer should discard "other produce items that might have come into contact with the cantaloupes.
Food safety experts are warning anyone who might have had the cantaloupes in their home to clean and sanitize their countertops and refrigerator with bleach because listeria can colonize even on the inside of a vegetable drawer.
Until now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had confirmed that at least 55 people in 14 states have been sickened from eating cantaloupes, and eight have died.
On Friday, Kansas authorities reported that there were two deaths among the eight known cases of listeriosis in the state so far. Five of those eight have been confirmed as linked to the national outbreak tied to the cantaloupe. The Kansas deaths were from Sept. 17 and Sept. 18.
"We are waiting on the medical examiner to say the cause of death," says Barbara Hersh, public information officer for the Kansas State Department of Health and Environment in Topeka, Kan.. The two who died are among the eight who've tested positive for listeriosis, "but we don't know if that was their primary cause of death. And we don't know if the two who died were part of the five who CDC confirmed were part of the national outbreak yet."
The outbreak is linked to whole cantaloupes sold by Jensen Farms of Holly, Colo. They may have been labeled Sweet Rocky Fords. Some cantaloupes may also have been unlabeled.
The melons were distributed in 17 states and so far cases have been found in 15 of those states: California, Colorado, Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
The Kansas illnesses all occurred since late August, but CDC officials were only able to confirm that the Kansas cases were from the same strains associated with the Colorado outbreak Wednesday evening,
Nationally, the illnesses all began after Aug. 4. After officials tracked the outbreak to Jensen Farms, the company launched a voluntary recall of its whole cantaloupes on Sept. 14.
The number of people sickened continues to expand, in part because it can take up to two months before a person who ate listeria-contaminated food comes down with listeriosis and perhaps because people may still have the cantaloupe in their refrigerators.
Listeria is a food-borne disease that is most dangerous to the elderly, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems. Symptoms include fever, muscle aches, diarrhea and vomiting. Public health officials urge anyone who possibly ate cantaloupe from Jensen Farms and who has had these symptoms to consult a health professional. Symptoms can occur as much as 70 days after exposure.
Mothers-to-be "may experience a mild illness, but the pathogen can pass through the placenta and infect the fetus, and it usually causes miscarriage," says Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, D.C.
Even though the cantaloupes are gone, the listeria might not be, she says. Her biggest concern is that listeria, which can reproduce even at refrigerator temperatures, can become an environmental contaminant. Anyone who purchased cantaloupes from the farm should discard or return them, carefully wrapped in plastic, to the store they came from. Consumers then should clean and sanitize the area where they were kept, she says.
Consumer should discard "other produce items that might have come into contact with the cantaloupes and clean with soapy water any surfaces that might have come in contact with them, and then sanitize them with a chlorine bleach solution," DeWaal says.
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