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BY ANGELA DAIDONE
NEWJERESYNEWSROOM.COM
Federal officials have confirmed that as many as thirteen people have now died in what has become the deadliest outbreak of a food-borne illness since 1998.
Tainted cantaloupes, which were traced to Jensen Farms’ fields in Colorado, are said to be the source of the bacteria Listeria monocytogenes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The outbreak was first reported September 12, when the CDC said 15 people in four states had been infected. As of Tuesday, those numbers had grown to 13 deaths, 72 illnesses in 18 states, including New Jersey and New York.
The Food and drug Administration said Jensen Farms issued a voluntary recall of the cantaloupes on Sept. 14, but FDA officials are concerned that the melons may remain in consumers’ homes. Listeria can survive and grow even when refrigerated, so any suspect fruit should be immediately discarded, officials said.
Listeria is a common bacterium that typically causes mild illness in healthy people, but can cause severe illness in older people and those with compromised immune systems. It also can cause miscarriages and stillbirths in pregnant women. Listeria infections lead to about 1,600 serious illnesses each year and about 260 people die, according to the CDC.Symptoms include fever, gastrointestinal distress and muscle aches, and can take up to four weeks to appear.
If the infection spreads to the nervous system, a person may experience headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and convulsions, according to the Mayo Clinic.
The last deadly outbreak of food-borne illness occurred in 1998, when 21 people died from consuming tainted hot dogs, according to a CDC database.
