Listeria outbreak has now claimed 18 lives
Officials expect more illnesses
WASHINGTON – Federal health officials have raised the death toll to 18 in an outbreak of listeria in cantaloupe.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday it has confirmed 100 illnesses in 20 states, including the 18 deaths. The agency said it has confirmed two additional deaths in Colorado and one in Kansas.
The CDC had previously reported five deaths in New Mexico, three deaths in Colorado, two deaths in Texas and one death each in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Maryland.
The death toll may continue to rise. Wyoming’s state health department said it has confirmed a death in that state linked to the outbreak, though the CDC did not include that case in its count. CDC officials have said the symptoms of listeria can take up to two months to show up and that they expect more illnesses.
Jensen Farms in Holly, Colo., recalled its cantaloupes Sept. 14 after the farm’s melons were traced to the listeria illnesses. The farm says it shipped cantaloupes to 28 states, though the Food and Drug Administration has said it may be more. Illnesses have been discovered in states that were not on the shipping list and company officials have said the product is often resold.
The outbreak is the deadliest in the United States in more than a decade.
The FDA said state health officials found listeria in cantaloupes taken from Colorado grocery stores 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 Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said Tuesday that the agency is still investigating the cause of the outbreak. Officials have said they are looking at the farm’s water supply and possible animal intrusions among other things in trying to figure out how the cantaloupes became contaminated.