Salmonella Blog - Surveillance & analysis on salmonella news & outbreaks

NBC Chicago News reports that Illinois Department of Public Health will investigate a salmonella outbreak that has affected dozens of residents in Kane County over the past year, officials said.

The source of the outbreak has not been located, and it's not related to a national strain linked to peanut butter, said Claire Dobbins, the Kane County Health Department's director of preparedness and communicable disease control.

Since January 2006, there have been 35 confirmed cases of salmonella serotype Newport in Kane County -- 22 of which occured among Hispanic residents.

WRIC Atlanta News reports that federal health officials say the number of lab-confirmed cases of peanut butter-associated salmonella has climbed to 370 -- up from the 329 reported last week.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday that North Dakota had now joined the count, raising the number of states with confirmed cases to 42.

About two dozen cases have been reported in Virginia.

ConAgra Foods recalled Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter made at its Sylvester, Georgia, plant after federal health officials linked the product to an outbreak of an unusual type of salmonella that has sickened people since August.

Yonhap News reports that a South Korean food watchdog said Monday it is recalling imported American peanut butter after it was linked to an outbreak of salmonella food poisoning in the U.S.

13wham.com reports that at least 34 people in New York State can trace recent illness to tainted peanut butter. The state health department says two more salmonella cases have been confirmed in New York. 

A wholesale produce importer on Friday recalled several thousand cartons of cantaloupes after some tested positive for salmonella.

Castle Produce said the recall covered roughly 2,560 cartons of cantaloupes delivered on or after Feb. 16 to wholesalers in Los Angeles and San Francisco for distribution in the western states. The cantaloupes originated in Costa Rica.

It wasn't clear if the cantaloupes had reached stores.

The recall is the second involving the fruit this month. The Dole Fresh Fruit Co. has recalled about 6,100 cartons of cantaloupes distributed to wholesalers in the eastern United States and Quebec between Feb. 5 and Feb. 8. The cantaloupes also were imported from Costa Rica and tested positive for salmonella.

The source of the salmonella was a plastic basket used to hold the cantaloupes after they are harvested and washed, said Steven Reynolds, the company's chief financial officer. There have been no reports of illness due to the contaminated cantaloupes, Reynolds said.

The cantaloupes were distributed for sale in bulk in cardboard cartons, with nine, 12 or 15 melons to a carton.

Salmonella, which commonly originates from the feces of birds and animals, can cause diarrhea, fever, dehydration, abdominal pain and vomiting.

There was a time there when Salmonella was associated largely with chickens and eggs, but as the last few years have shown the potentially deadly pathogen can show up in all kinds of foods.

A few of the more recent examples:

• Peanut Butter Peter Pan, Great Value peanut butter blamed for sickening an unknown number of consumers nationwide.

• Tomatoes In November 2006, tainted tomatoes served in restaurants caused 183 reported cases of illness in 21 states.

Keep Reading here

A peanut butter recall in the news affects a relatively small portion of the nation’s peanut butter supply, and doesn’t mean that consumers should stop buying or using other peanut butter, said Karen Blakeslee, Kansas State University Research Extension food scientist.

It does mean that consumers should check the brand and product code of peanut butter they have on hand and, if it matches the recall, discard the potentially contaminated product.

The potential contaminant, Salmonella Tennessee, can cause foodborne illness, Blakeslee said. Symptoms, which include fever, diarrhea and abdominal cramps, typically appear within 12 to 72 hours after ingestion. The illness usually lasts four to seven days and most people recover without treatment. Those with severe diarrhea, however, may need to be hospitalized. Keep Reading here

A class action lawsuit was filed against ConAgra Tuesday in United States District Court for the Western District of Washington. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of named plaintiffs James Daniels and Linda Oswald, and all other individuals who became ill with Salmonella infections after consuming Salmonella-contaminated Peter Pan or Great Value peanut butter. The plaintiffs are represented by Marler Clark, the Seattle-based law firm that has represented thousands of victims of Salmonella, E. coli, and other foodborne illness outbreaks.

“We have been contacted by over 2,200 families who consumed peanut butter and are looking to pursue legal claims against ConAgra since the FDA announced the recall of ConAgra-manufactured peanut butter on February 14th,” said William Marler, managing partner of Marler Clark. “We feel that a class action is the most efficient means for achieving fair compensation for people who were not hospitalized, but have strong evidence of a Salmonella infection.”

Marler pointed out that the Class Action excludes any individuals who were hospitalized or died as a result of their illnesses. Marler Clark has been contacted by hundreds of people who were hospitalized as a result of their Salmonella infections, and is investigating three deaths that may be tied to this outbreak. “Those people suffered more severe injuries than the majority of people we have been contacted by, and we will pursue individual claims on their behalf,” added Marler.

The proposed class includes all persons who:

(1) Purchased Peter Pan or Great Value peanut butter since May 2006 with a product-code beginning with 2111 imprinted on the lid; and

(2) As a result suffered either
(a) A lab-confirmed Salmonella infection, or
(b)Symptoms consistent with a Salmonella infection – i.e., fever, abdominal cramps, headache, and diarrhea – that otherwise fit the CDC case-definition for the subject outbreak.

The affected jars of Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter have a product code located on the lid of the jar that begins with the number "2111." Both the Peter Pan and Great Value brands are manufactured in a single Con Agra facility in Georgia. These products have national distribution.

According to the CDC, as of February 15th at 3PM EST, 290 persons with Salmonella Tennessee, the Salmonella type associated with this outbreak, have been reported to CDC from 39 states: Alaska (1), Alabama (9), Arkansas (3), Arizona (5), California (1), Colorado (10), Connecticut (2), Georgia (14), Iowa (6), Illinois (5), Indiana (13), Kansas (6), Kentucky (9), Massachusetts (5), Maryland (2), Maine (1), Michigan (5), Minnesota (5), Missouri (13), Mississippi (3), Montana (2), Nebraska (2), New Jersey (5), North Carolina (15), New Mexico (1), New York (32), Ohio (7), Oklahoma (10), Oregon (2), Pennsylvania (23), South Carolina (6), South Dakota (5), Tennessee (18), Texas (13), Virginia (17), Vermont (4), Washington (4), Wisconsin (5), and West Virginia (1). Among 185 patients for whom clinical information is available, 44 (24%) were hospitalized. There have been no reports of deaths attributed to this infection. Onset dates, which are known for 171 patients, ranged from August 1, 2006 to January 30, 2007.

As I said on my blog yesterday - The last 48 hours at Marler Clark have been interesting – we have responded to nearly 1,000 emails or phone calls (thanks to a very hardworking staff) from every part of the United States (and two foreign countries) - people do eat a lot of peanut butter – some of it was surely contaminated with Salmonella.  We have filed two lawsuits - in Federal Court in Missouri and New York.

The accents are all different – North Dakota, Georgia, Massachusetts – but all tell a similar story of vomiting, diarrhea and fever. Some people, and a lot of kids, had repeated bouts of illness. Hundreds that we have spoken to spent time with their doctors or in ERs, and many have been hospitalized. Many folks did not have insurance and simply could not seek medical care because they could not afford it.

What is also interesting is that, although many of the callers report symptoms consistent with Salmonella poisoning, only about 10% report testing positive for Salmonella in their stool. However, most report still having jars of peanut butter with the 2111 code imprinted on the lid. We look forward to testing the product.

This outbreak only underscores the problems with food poisoning surveillance in the Untied States. People who are sick may or may not seek medical attention, perhaps because they cannot afford it, or perhaps because they wanted to just care for themselves or their children. So, no stool culture, no contact with the Health Department, no way to figure out what the cause of the outbreak is. Not figuring out the cause of the outbreak means that we are bound to repeat it.

A Salmonella lawsuit was filed Friday in United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri against ConAgra, the Omaha, Nebraska-based food company whose Georgia peanut butter plant has been traced as the source of a Salmonella outbreak that sickened hundreds. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Buchannan County, Missouri, residents Brian and Susanna Cox and their two children. The Cox family is represented by Seattle-based Marler Clark, the Seattle law firm that has represented thousands of victims of foodborne illness outbreaks, and Springfield, Missouri-based Aleshire, Robb & Sivils.

In the lawsuit, attorneys allege that the Cox family first became ill with symptoms of Salmonella infections in October, 2006 and that both children required medical treatment. Unaware of the association between the consumption of peanut butter and their illnesses, the Cox family continued to purchase and consume Great Value brand peanut butter in the subsequent months. The Cox family first learned of a Salmonella outbreak traced to Great Value brand peanut butter on February 14, 2007, when the Food and Drug Administration announced Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter manufactured in ConAgra’s Georgia peanut butter plant had been traced as the source of a Salmonella outbreak among nearly 300 residents of 39 states.

“I’ve handled claims on behalf of victims of nationwide Salmonella outbreaks traced to tomatoes, cereal, and unpasteurized orange juice, but never peanut butter,” said William Marler, managing partner of Marler Clark.

Marler listed his top five recommendations for individuals who may be part of the Salmonella outbreak:

1.If you or a family member are still sick, please seek medical treatment.

2.If you do seek medical treatment, please ask that a stool culture be done to try and confirm that you have been sickened by Salmonella.

3.You should contact you local health department about your concerns and to relate information about your family members’ illnesses. Please make note of your peanut butter label, the brand, and the product code found on the lid—“2111” is the implicated product. Also note when and where you purchased it. This information will help the health department’s investigation.

4.If you have any left-over peanut butter, please put the entire jar in a plastic bag and place it in a cool spot. Please let your local health department know that you have it. They may offer to test it.

5.If any family member is currently sick, please be sure to attend to careful hygiene. Frequent hand washing can help reduce the risk of spreading infection among family members.

The Associated Press reports that the recalled Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter has been connected to the recent salmonella outbreak in 39 states.

Consumers should throw away certain jars of Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter after the spread was linked to a salmonella outbreak that has sickened almost 300 people around the country, ConAgra said.

Lids of jars produced by ConAgra Foods with a product code beginning "2111" can be returned to the company for a refund, the company said.

The salmonella outbreak, which federal health officials said Wednesday has sickened 288 people in 39 states since August, was linked to tainted peanut butter produced by ConAgra at a plant in Sylvester, Ga. How salmonella got into peanut butter is still under investigation, said Dr. Mike Lynch, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Two classrooms at Fort Huachuca daycare center in Sierra Vista have been shut down due to an outbreak of salmonella. Since last September, health officials have identified 45 cases of the illness, but they haven't been able to find a source.

Two weeks ago, representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention came to town to help, but still no luck. Now, with the two new cases discovered on post, military officials say they had to take action.

According to KVOA News, officials closed two rooms as a precaution. The decision has paid off. Not only have health officials identified the two salmonella cases but they've also discovered another five children with symptons.

Currently, there are 256 children enrolled in the Fort Huachuca daycare center. The classrooms are scheduled to be open Tuesday.