Deaths due to the Listeria outbreak in cantaloupe rise to 28

The number of deaths in an outbreak of listeria in cantaloupe is still growing as health authorities federal report deaths in Colorado, Kansas and Missouri.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Tuesday that it now are 28 deaths from the outbreak to a dozen. The CDC said 133 people have been sickened in 26 States, including deaths.

Colorado contaminated cantaloupes are out of the shelves now, but as listeria symptoms may take up to two months to appear, federal officials said they will monitor the outbreak until at least November.

Deaths were also reported in Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming.

Firm Jensen in Holly, Colorado, recalled the cantaloupes on 14 September.

-By MARY CLARE JALONICK

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Congress to probe listeria outbreak in cantaloupes

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Farm workers harvest cantaloupe in Somerton, Arizona, June 7, 2006.

Credit: Reuters/Stringer

WASHINGTON | Fri Oct 21, 2011 10:24am EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lawmakers in the House of Representatives plan to investigate what caused a deadly food poisoning outbreak in cantaloupes from a Colorado farm.

The bipartisan group of lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce committee wrote to Ryan and Eric Jensen, who own Jensen Farms, asking them to brief committee staff and preserve documents related to the outbreak of listeria, which has killed 25 people and made 123 ill.

Unsanitary conditions at the farm's packing plant probably contributed to the outbreak, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said.

The committee also wants to hear from the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about what could be done to prevent future outbreaks, the lawmakers said in a letter on Friday.

Listeria monocytogenes is a frequent cause of U.S. food recalls in processed meats and cheeses, but contamination in fresh produce is a new development.

The elderly, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems are most at risk. Symptoms include fever and muscle aches, sometimes preceded by diarrhea and other gastric problems.

The illness has a long incubation period, with symptoms sometimes not showing up until two months after people consume listeria-contaminated foods.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

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Congress to probe listeria outbreak in cantaloupes

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Farm workers harvest cantaloupe in Somerton, Arizona, June 7, 2006.

Credit: Reuters/Stringer

WASHINGTON | Fri Oct 21, 2011 10:24am EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lawmakers in the House of Representatives plan to investigate what caused a deadly food poisoning outbreak in cantaloupes from a Colorado farm.

The bipartisan group of lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce committee wrote to Ryan and Eric Jensen, who own Jensen Farms, asking them to brief committee staff and preserve documents related to the outbreak of listeria, which has killed 25 people and made 123 ill.

Unsanitary conditions at the farm's packing plant probably contributed to the outbreak, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said.

The committee also wants to hear from the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about what could be done to prevent future outbreaks, the lawmakers said in a letter on Friday.

Listeria monocytogenes is a frequent cause of U.S. food recalls in processed meats and cheeses, but contamination in fresh produce is a new development.

The elderly, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems are most at risk. Symptoms include fever and muscle aches, sometimes preceded by diarrhea and other gastric problems.

The illness has a long incubation period, with symptoms sometimes not showing up until two months after people consume listeria-contaminated foods.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

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China fighting polio outbreak

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30 September 2011 Last updated at 23:04 GMT By Helen Briggs Health editor, BBC News website Polio has reappeared in China A massive vaccination campaign is under way in China after an outbreak of polio, more than 10 years after the country was declared polio free. What are the implications for the global effort to eradicate the disease?

Health officials in China are taking strong measures in their drive to stop an outbreak of polio.

Children who have been given the vaccine are marked behind the ears with indelible ink to make sure there is no confusion.

Vaccination is taking place in homes, kindergartens, schools, bus stations and airports, according to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, which is leading the worldwide effort to wipe out the disease.

Continue reading the main story Polio is an infectious disease caused by a virus which invades the nervous system and may cause irreversible paralysisIt can strike at any age but mainly affects children under fiveThere is no cure for polio, it can only be preventedPolio vaccine, given multiple times, can protect a child for life.As long as a single child remains infected with polio, unvaccinated children in all countries are at risk

Source: World Health Organization

Until a few weeks ago, polio was a disease of the past in China, as in most countries around the world. But the discovery of 10 cases of polio in the western province of Xinjiang, and one death, has lead to millions of children and young adults being vaccinated.

Genetic studies show the virus came across the border from neighbouring Pakistan. Polio still has a foothold in Pakistan, along with three other countries - India, Afghanistan and Nigeria.

There have also been sporadic cases in other formerly polio-free countries - such as parts of western Africa - as the virus is brought in by travellers.

"There is an urgent need to eradicate this disease in the remaining endemic areas because it is from there that it will continue to spread," says Oliver Rosenbauer, of the World Health Organization.

"The focus has to be on the endemic countries."

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative was launched in 1988, with the aim of ridding the world of polio. It has two main strategies - mass vaccination and careful surveillance for new cases.

Since 1988, the number of cases have fallen by more than 99%. But persistent pockets of polio transmission in northern India, northern Nigeria and on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan continue to put unvaccinated children everywhere at risk. Since 2000, polio cases have hovered at about 1,000 a year.

Delivering vaccine to impoverished states in India is a major challenge

India, with its huge population and poor health facilities in some states, presents a major challenge in efforts to wipe out polio. It has reported only a single case this year, but, concerned about the possibly of polio spreading from Pakistan, the government has set up vaccination booths at major border crossings.

Security issues in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan make vaccination programmes there very difficult; while Nigeria, which has about 30 cases this year, is continuing its efforts to control the virus, after previous setbacks.

A further challenge is funding. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative says the funding gap up to the end of 2012 is $590m.

"This is really a risk we shouldn't have to be taking at this stage of the game," says Oliver Rosenbauer.

Some observers believe we have reached the last mile in eradicating polio.

But Dr Heidi Larson, a vaccine expert at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, says it's not clear how long the last mile will take.

"We're very close but we've been close for over a decade now," she says. "We are in the last mile but that last mile can take us six months or it can take six years.

"The most important thing is that we cannot give up, because if we do the cost will be tremendous - at a financial level, at a health impact level and an overall cost of public confidence in some vaccines."

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Fear in Colo. town at heart of Listeria outbreak

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Eric Jensen walks a field with rotting cantaloupes on the Jensen Farms near Holly, Colo., on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011. Eric and his brother Ryan own Jensen Farms that has been identified as the source of the national listeria outbreak that has killed more than a dozen people so far. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski) Eric Jensen walks a field with rotting cantaloupes on the Jensen Farms near Holly, Colo., on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011. Eric and his brother Ryan own Jensen Farms that has been identified as the source of the national listeria outbreak that has killed more than a dozen people so far. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski) A field with rotting cantaloupes is pictured on the Jensen Farms near Holly, Colo., on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011. Jensen Farms cantaloupe has been identified as the source of the national listeria outbreak that has killed more than a dozen people so far. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski) Chart shows the number of cases of listeria by stateeval("var currentItemd57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9ff = 1;");eval("var nextd57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9ff = 0;");eval("var previousd57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9ff = 0;"); HOLLY, Colo. (AP) — Eric Jensen surveys his dusty cantaloupe field and seems equally stunned and puzzled at the fate that has befallen his crop: row upon row of melons rotting on the vine.

Jensen is the co-owner of the Colorado farm where health officials say a national listeria outbreak originated, making his withering fields the epicenter of a food scare that has sickened dozens of people from Wyoming to Maryland and caused as many as 17 deaths.

The farm has recalled more than 300,000 cases of cantaloupes and on Thursday three states — Indiana, Louisiana and Wisconsin — were added to the recall list. Spokeswoman Amy Philpott said that trucking records show that cantaloupes originally intended for other locations ended up in those states but that the buyers were notified as part of the original Sept. 14 recall.

Jensen has no idea how his cantaloupes became infected, and neither do the Food and Drug Administration investigators who have intermittently been in this town of 800 people near the Kansas border since the outbreak started earlier this month.

Regardless of how it happened, the situation has left the town and farm reeling and in fear. Jensen had to quit growing and shipping cantaloupes after the outbreak was discovered — a staggering blow to a region where cantaloupe has always been a proud local tradition.

Until the listeria infections started showing up, Holly's field workers would bring melons into town to share, just as they have for generations. And it wasn't uncommon for Holly residents to stop by Jensen Farms to buy freshly picked cantaloupe. Now, not even the local grocery store has any of the fruit.

No one in Holly has been sickened, but people are frightened by the prospect of contracting listeria. The bacteria can have an incubation period of a month or more, and it principally affects the elderly and those with compromised immune systems.

"I ate that cantaloupe, and I gave some of it to my 97-year-old mother,'" said Wanda Watson, co-owner of the Tasty House Cafe. "I'm watching her real close. It's scary because it could be up to two months before you get sick."

Sherri McGarry, a senior adviser in the FDA's Office of Foods, said the agency is looking at the farm's water supply and the possibility that animals wandered into Jensen Farms' fields, among other things, in trying to figure out how the cantaloupes became contaminated. Listeria bacteria grow in moist, muddy conditions and are often carried by animals.

The water supply for farms in the Holly area comes from wells and irrigation ditches that tap the nearby Arkansas River. There's no shortage of thoughts around town about the potential causes.

"Well water? I doubt it. Ditch water? Well, there's some probability, but it's low," said Jim Cline, a retired construction worker. "Animal intrusion? Well, OK, what kind of animal? Deer? Coons? Coyotes? What kind of animal wants to get into a melon field?"

At Jensen Farms, workers have stopped picking cantaloupes because of a recall of its product. There's no need to irrigate the crop anymore, and the melons are drying up in the rock-hard fields. As Eric Jensen surveyed his lost crop, workers ripped up plastic that's laid down in rows to help the cantaloupe grow.

He could not discuss the outbreak, citing a likely raft of pending litigation.

"There are a lot of things I'd like to say right now, but now is not the time," Jensen said.

It's the latest blow to Holly, a town that has seen its share of hard times.

In late 2006, Holly was pummeled by a blizzard that cut off the town from the outside world so badly that helicopters had to drop feed to stranded cattle. Just as people were digging out of the blizzard, a tornado blasted through Holly, killing three people and destroying and damaging dozens of homes.

The Sept. 10 recall of Jensen Farms' cantaloupes came toward the end of a harvesting season made difficult by a severe drought that has rendered swaths of southeast Colorado, Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma federal disaster areas.

Residents talk about conditions so dry that some corn stalks have no ears of corn on them. Yields in wheat fields — usually between 40 to 50 bushels an acre — have dropped to about 20.

"We just haven't had any luck around here," said Watson.

Holly is about a 90-minute drive from the town of Rocky Ford, home to Colorado's revered cantaloupe growing region. Cantaloupes from the Arkansas River Valley are prized for their sweetness and are such a big deal that farms like Jensen's — 70 miles away — carry the brand name "Rocky Ford Cantaloupe."

The listeria scare has some residents wondering about the future for their Rocky Ford brand of cantaloupe — and cantaloupe farming in Colorado for that matter. They're hopeful this outbreak eventually will fade from the public's memory, like others involving spinach or ground meat contaminated by E. coli bacteria or salmonella.

"You think beef recalls, you think spinach in California," said Michael Daskam, who works in the local soil conservation office. "But heck, I was eating spinach and beef right after."

The same goes for locally grown cantaloupe.

"I'm not afraid of eating cantaloupe. I'd eat one right now," Holly Mayor Viola Welcher said. "We've all eaten it and no one in our area has gotten sick."

___

Online:

http://www.cdc.gov/listeria/index.html

http://1.usa.gov/rr2j1d

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Cantaloupe outbreak is deadliest in a decade

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Owner Eric Jensen examines cantaloupe on the Jensen Farms near Holly, Colo., on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011. Federal health officials said Wednesday more illnesses and possibly more deaths may be linked to an outbreak of listeria in cantaloupe in coming weeks. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski) Owner Eric Jensen examines cantaloupe on the Jensen Farms near Holly, Colo., on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011. Federal health officials said Wednesday more illnesses and possibly more deaths may be linked to an outbreak of listeria in cantaloupe in coming weeks. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski) A sign leading to the Jensen Farms near Holly, Colo., is pictured on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011. Federal health officials said Wednesday more illnesses and possibly more deaths may be linked to an outbreak of listeria in cantaloupe in coming weeks. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski) Workers use a tractor to remove plastic from a field of rotting cantaloupe on the Jensen Farms near Holly, Colo., on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011. The Food and Drug Administration has recalled 300,000 cases of cantaloupe grown on the Jensen Farms after connecting it with a listeria out break. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski) Cantaloupes rot in the afternoon heat on a field on the Jensen Farms near Holly, Colo., on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011. Federal health officials said Wednesday more illnesses and possibly more deaths may be linked to an outbreak of listeria in cantaloupe in coming weeks. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)eval("var currentItemd57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9ff = 1;");eval("var nextd57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9ff = 0;");eval("var previousd57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9ff = 0;"); WASHINGTON (AP) — Health officials say as many as 16 people have died from possible listeria illnesses traced to Colorado cantaloupes, the deadliest food outbreak in more than a decade.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday that 72 illnesses, including 13 deaths, are linked to the tainted fruit. State and local officials say they are investigating three additional deaths that may be connected.

The death toll released by the CDC Tuesday — including newly confirmed deaths in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Texas — surpassed the number of deaths linked to an outbreak of salmonella in peanuts almost three years ago. Nine people died in that outbreak.

The CDC said Tuesday that they have confirmed two deaths in Texas and one death each in in Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. Last week the CDC reported two deaths in Colorado, four deaths in New Mexico, one in Oklahoma and one in Maryland.

New Mexico officials said Tuesday they are investigating a fifth death, while health authorities in Kansas and Wyoming said they too are investigating additional deaths possibly linked to the tainted fruit.

Listeria is more deadly than well-known pathogens like salmonella and E. coli, though those outbreaks generally cause many more illnesses. Twenty-one people died in an outbreak of listeria poisoning in 1998 traced to contaminated hot dogs and possibly deli meats made by Bil Mar Foods, a subsidiary of Sara Lee Corp. Another large listeria outbreak in 1985 killed 52 people and was linked to Mexican-style soft cheese.

Listeria generally only sickens the elderly, pregnant women and others with compromised immune systems. The CDC said the median age of those sickened is 78 and that one in five who contract the disease can die.

Dr. Robert Tauxe of the CDC says the number of illnesses and deaths will probably grow in coming weeks because the symptoms of listeria don't always show up right away. It can take four weeks or more for a person to fall ill after eating food contaminated with listeria.

"That long incubation period is a real problem," Tauxe said. "People who ate a contaminated food two weeks ago or even a week ago could still be falling sick weeks later."

CDC reported the 72 illnesses and deaths in 18 states. Cases of listeria were reported in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. The most illnesses were reported in Colorado, which has seen 15 sickened. Fourteen illnesses were reported in Texas, 10 in New Mexico and eight in Oklahoma.

The outbreak has been traced to Jensen Farms in Holly, Colo., which recalled the tainted cantaloupes earlier this month. The Food and Drug Administration said state health officials had found listeria in cantaloupes taken from grocery stores in the state 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.

FDA, which investigates the cause of foodborne outbreaks, has not released any additional details on how the contamination may have happened. The agency says its investigation is ongoing.

The Rocky Ford-brand cantaloupes from Jensen Farms were shipped from July 29 through Sept. 10 to Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming.

The recalled cantaloupe may be labeled "Colorado Grown," ''Distributed by Frontera Produce," ''Jensenfarms.com" or "Sweet Rocky Fords." Not all of the recalled cantaloupes are labeled with a sticker, the FDA said.

Unlike many pathogens, listeria bacteria can grow at room temperatures and even refrigerator temperatures. The FDA and CDC recommend anyone who may have one of the contaminated cantaloupes throw it out immediately and clean and sanitize any surfaces it may have touched.

About 800 cases of listeria are found in the United States each year, according to CDC, and there usually are three or four outbreaks. Most of these are traced to deli meat and soft cheeses, where listeria is most common.

Produce has rarely been the culprit, but federal investigators say they have seen more produce-related listeria illnesses in the past two years. It was found in sprouts in 2009 and celery in 2010.

While most healthy adults can consume listeria with no ill effects, it can kill the elderly and those with compromised immune systems. It is also dangerous to pregnant women because it easily passes through to the fetus. Dr. Tauxe of the CDC said the type of listeria linked to the cantaloupes is not one that is commonly associated with pregnancy-associated illnesses, however. State and federal health authorities have not definitively linked any miscarriages, stillbirths or infant illnesses to the current outbreak.

Symptoms of listeria include fever and muscle aches, often with other gastrointestinal symptoms. Victims often become incapacitated and unable to speak.

Debbie Frederick said her mother knew something was wrong when her father, 87-year-old William Thomas Beach, collapsed at his home in Mustang, Okla. and couldn't get up. He died a few days later, on Sept. 1. The family later learned his death was linked to eating the cantaloupe and sued Jensen Farms.

"First you just kind of go into shock," said Frederick. "Then it settles in that he would still be alive if this hadn't happened. It's a life, for what?"

___

Associated Press writers Jamie Stengle in Dallas, Josh Funk in Omaha, Neb., Maria Sudekum Fisher in Kansas City, Mo., Susan Montoya in Albuquerque, N.M. and Ben Neary in Cheyenne, Wyo. contributed to this report.

___

Online:

CDC on cantaloupe outbreak: http://www.cdc.gov/nczved/divisions/dfbmd/diseases/listeriosis/092111.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

___

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

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Preschools shut as virus outbreak rages in Vietnam

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HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — More than a dozen kindergartens in Vietnam have closed to deal with an outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease that has killed 111 children and sickened more than 57,000 this year, an official and the government said.

Ten kindergartens in Hau Giang province were shut for 10 days to clean and check the students' health, said Nguyen Van Muoi, head of the provincial preventive medicine center. Four schools reopened last week, he said Monday.

The southern province has had 361 cases since June, and some 50 children are hospitalized. He blamed the increase on the virus' spread after children returned to school from summer break. Kindergartens in Vietnam are similar to preschools, accepting children ages 1 to 6.

"I hope with this measure (closing the preschools), the new cases will drop," Muoi said.

At least three more kindergartens in the southern Bac Lieu province and the central highland province of Dak Nong also have been closed, Monday's Vietnam News reported.

The Health Ministry says more than 2,000 new cases of hand, foot and mouth disease are being reported each week. In a typical year, the virus infects up to 15,000 children in Vietnam and kills 20 to 30 of them.

The Ministry has recorded 57,055 cases and 111 deaths in the country as of Sept. 22, including a 3-year-old child who died on Sept. 20 in Hanoi, its website said Tuesday. A more severe strain called enterovirus 71, or EV-71, was identified earlier in about a third of sampled cases. It can result in paralysis, brain swelling and death.

Southern provinces report 70 percent of the cases and 90 percent of the deaths, it said.

The World Health Organization has said three-quarters of the deaths have been children younger than 3 years old.

The virus is named from its telltale symptoms, including rash, mouth sores and blisters on the hands and feet. It is spread by sneezing, coughing and contact with fluid from blisters or infected feces.

No vaccine exists, but the illness is typically mild and most children recover quickly. The disease is caused by enteroviruses in the same family as polio.

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Kansas firm recalls cantaloupe linked to Listeria outbreak

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n">(Reuters) - A Kansas-based food processor recalled hundreds of pounds of fresh-cut cantaloupe on Friday because of possible Listeria contamination linked to melons from Colorado that were blamed for an outbreak that has killed eight people.

Carol's Cuts was recalling 594 pounds of cantaloupe packaged in 5-pound trays and as an ingredient in fruit medleys distributed in Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, a recall notice posted on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration website said.

In addition to the eight deaths, a total of 55 people in 14 states have been sickened from Listeria-tainted cantaloupes traced to melons grown at Colorado-based Jensen Farms Inc and sold under the brand name Rocky Ford.

"The Carol's Cuts recall is part of a larger recall involving cantaloupe traced to Rocky Ford cantaloupes produced by Jensen Farms," the recall notice said.

"Consumers who may have the recalled Carol's Cuts product in their possession should return it to the place of purchase for a full refund or destroy it," it added.

The Food and Drug Administration said last week the tainted cantaloupes were shipped to 17 states. Not all states that have received shipments of the melons appear to have seen infections.

The recall notice said the fruit in the Carol's Cuts recall, which had use-by dates of September 19 at the latest, was sold to institutional customers including restaurants and may have been used in salad bars or as a fruit menu item.

The Colorado company linked to the outbreak, Jensen Farms, has voluntarily recalled its cantaloupes shipped between July 29 and September 10.

Listeria monocytogenes, the bacterial strain found in the tainted cantaloupes, thrives at low temperatures, the CDC said on its website. Infection can be particularly dangerous for elderly people, pregnant women and patients with weakened immune systems, health officials said.

Previous Listeria outbreaks linked to produce were traced to sprouts and celery.

(Writing by Cynthia Johnston)

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DNA links listeria outbreak to Colorado cantaloupe grower

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By Keith Coffman

DENVER | Fri Sep 16, 2011 10:28pm EDT

DENVER (Reuters) - Lab tests by Colorado health officials confirmed a listeria outbreak that has killed at least two people is linked to cantaloupe grown at a farm in the southeast part of the state, officials said on Friday.

Jensen Farms Inc of Holly, Colorado, which has voluntarily recalled all its melons shipped to 17 states, was named as the source. The farm is about 200 miles southeast of Denver.

The determination by Colorado health officials came one day after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned consumers not to eat any melons raised at Jensen Farms.

Listeria monocytogenes is a virulent bacterium that can thrive at low temperatures and causes about 1,600 people in the United States to fall ill with flu-like symptoms each year, killing more than 250, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Cantaloupe samples from the refrigerator of a listeria patient's home, as well as samples obtained from various retail outlets last week, have the same DNA fingerprints as the listeria that has infected 12 Colorado residents," the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said in a statement on Friday.

"All of the listeria-positive cantaloupe samples at this time appear to have been grown at Jensen Farms."

The listeria outbreak has infected 22 people in seven states and caused two deaths, the CDC said on its website.

Listeria outbreaks are usually associated with deli meats, unpasteurized cheeses and smoked refrigerated seafood products. This is just the third outbreak of the food-borne illness traced to fresh produce, the FDA said.

Health officials warn pregnant women, people over the age of 60 and those with compromised immune systems not to consume items known to be linked to the bacteria.

Those infected with the gastrointestinal illness experience flu-like symptoms, and in extreme cases can suffer convulsions and miscarriages or stillbirths in pregnant women. Antibiotics are effective in treating the infection in most cases.

(Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Peter Bohan)

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HEALTH MANAGEMENT. Outbreak of Listeria warning prompt, voluntary recall of Ford rock cantaloupe

Health officials have issued a warning for cantaloupes area producers of melon revered the Ford rock of the State of Colorado, to the United States in an outbreak of bacteria blamed for four deaths in the State and the Mexico New, disturbing of farmers who depend on sales of the fruit.
The warning of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention came after many cases of a strain of Listeria have been reported in six States, including at least 11 Colorado, 10 of the New-Mexico, two in Texas and one each in Indiana, Nebraska and Oklahoma.
The Agency said that it is the first outbreak of Listeria associated with cantaloupe in the United States. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration said that he had not recalled melons, while working to locate the source.
Update: Jensen firm in Holly, Colorado, is voluntarily recalling cantaloupe that it shipped to Illinois, Wyoming, Tennessee, Utah, Texas, Colorado, Minnesota, Kansas, New-Mexico, North Carolina, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Arizona, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania between July 29 and September 10.
Rocky cantaloupes Ford, named for an area along the old Santa Fe Trail about 130 miles (200 km) southeast of Denver, are appreciated for their above average sugar content. W.C. Fields told bald guys have "a head shaped like a cantaloupe Rocky Ford", and Lucile Ball had delivered to his dressing room melons.
"This is really ridiculous." You can obtain Listeria any where. "Melons to eat every day," said Kent Lusk, a fifth generation farmer cantaloupe of Rocky Ford.
Commissioner of the Colorado Agriculture, John Salazar, said that the contamination has perhaps not cantaloupe, but a truck or other source. But several Colorado grocery chains pulled their supplies as a precautionary measure, and at the New-Mexico issued a voluntary recall. State Bureau of environmental health inspectors have been collecting samples of cantaloupe grocery stores and distributors across the New Mexico for laboratory analysis.
Listeriosis is a serious infection usually caused by ingestion of food contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. The disease primarily affects the elderly, pregnant women, infants and adults with weakened immune systems.
Director of the health of the Colorado Chris Urbina said of people who are the people of included high risk 60 and older, those whose immune system is weakened of transplants and persons with chronic diseases. Symptoms may include fever, muscle aches, diarrhea, headache of head, neck stiffness, confusion and seizures. Listeriosis can cause miscarriages and stillbirths.
The CDC warning advised people with cantaloupes home to see if they came from the region of Rocky Ford and if yes, do not eat melons are in a group vulnerable. Health application people throw cantaloupes Rocky Ford put them in a closed plastic bag before putting them in the trash.
The fatal cases in the New-Mexico included a man 93 years old, originally from the County of Bernalillo, a 61-year-old woman, originally from the County of Curry and a man of 63 years, originally from the County of Bernalillo. Mark Salley, spokesman for the Department of the Colorado public health and environment, said the deceased in Colorado was not to be identified.

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HEALTH MANAGEMENT. Listeria Outbreak probe expands to three States

By Keith Coffman
DENVER | September 9, 2011 7: 16 pm EDT
DENVER (Reuters) - has expanded an investigation into a Listeria outbreak has killed at least one person with three States where was consumed potentially contaminated cantaloupe, Colorado health officials said on Friday.
The Colorado Department of public health and the environment, said in a release that the all patients recently melon ate nine confirmed cases of the gastric infection in Colorado, two suspected cases in Texas and Nebraska.
Chris Urbina, medical Chief for the Department said that officials still pursued still not, where the tainted were sold melons.
"While the investigation continues the cooker of the listeria, it is advisable for people at high risk for Listeria infection to consume of melon," URBINA said in a written statement.
At the age of 60, pregnant women and people, whose Immunsystem have weakened by disease or organ transplantation, are the most likely of the bacteria become ill URBINA said.
Because of the outbreak is gone-State, the US Centers for disease control and prevention coordinated the investigation in conjunction with the U.S. food and drug administration and the U.S. Department of agriculture.
Although Colorado has reported since early August 13 cases of Listeria associated the State to the current outbreak only nine cases.
In four other cases the melon link has excluded or laboratory results aren't yet Health Department said.
Two patients have in Colorado of Listeria last month died, but investigators can only be a dead link to the current outbreak.
Avoid people in the groups at risk for contracting the infection should unpasteurized soft cheese, chilled, smoked fish and Deli meat unless they have been heated to 165 degrees Celsius.
Healthy people are usually not affected by the bacteria. In severe cases, the infection can lead to convulsions and stillbirths or miscarriages in pregnant women.

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