June 2008

This weekend began with news from both the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC).

The FDA gave the impression it was closing in on the source of the contaminated tomatoes, sending teams into areas of both Mexico and Florida to some specific farms that might finally turn up who is responsible for the outbreak.    FDA said:

The FDA is now working to narrow the investigation. As part of this, the agency is sending teams of multi-disciplinary experts to both Mexico and Florida this weekend to conduct joint inspections of the farms and other critical points on the supply chain where the tomatoes may have become contaminated.

The FDA investigators will conduct joint inspections with regulators in Mexico and Florida at the farms and other distribution points. Meanwhile, the FDA will continue to collect samples of tomatoes and conduct traceback activities.

To further narrow the investigation, the FDA is working with the state of Texas to traceback a cluster of illnesses recently found by the state of Texas. We are hopeful that this will provide additional information to bring the agency closer to the source of the contamination.

The FDA is working jointly with Mexico and Florida and other states to update the list of areas not associated with the outbreak and will continue to post the information on the web site.

While painting a target on Mexico, FDA at the same time added most Mexican states to the
list of "safe" tomato growing areas.

The "safe" areas now include  include the Mexican states of: Aguascalientes, Baja California Norte, Baja California Sur, Campeche, Colima, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Distrito Federal, Durango, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Hidalgo, México, Michoacán, Morelos, Nayarit, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Puebla, Querétaro, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosí, Sonora, Tobasco, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala, Veracruz, Yucatán, Zacatecas.

The only Mexican state bordering on the U.S. not on the "safe" list is Coahuila.

CDC’s list of confirmed cases of Salmonella Saintpaul connected to the tainted tomatoes was 552 as the weekend began.   It said 32 states and the District of Columbia were involved.   New Jersey and Rhode Island were the latest states added to the outbreak list.

So, will FDA close the case or be left so befuddled that the agency makes Lou Dobbs look profound?   What will it say about Mexico or Florida if either area is named when the music stops?
How high will CDC’s confirmed number of cases go?   Might CDC say something about the liklihood from previous studies that something like 38 people go untreated for every confirmed case of salmonella? 

That, gentle readers, means about 21,000 people are now victims of Salmonella Saintpaul due to bad tomatoes.

Continue Reading Will the Great Salmonella Saintpaul Tomato Outbreak End With A Bang or A Whimper?

States with persons with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Saintpaul, by state of residence.

Here are the money lines from today’s update on the Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak involving tomatoes from the Centers on Disease Control & Prevention:

Since April, 383 persons infected with Salmonella Saintpaul with the same genetic fingerprint have been identified in 30…

Bill’s blog has the new official numbers from the Centers on Disease Control & Prevention on the Salmonella Saintpaul tomato outbreak.   Go here for it.  We’ve got a border-to-border, coast-to-coast outreak here involving 28 states with 277 confirmed cases and the related death of Raul Rivera in Houston.

One state, Oklahoma, has  been added to…

Now it’s been two weeks and a day since the Centers For Disease Control called up the U.S. Food & Drug Administration to report that we have a problem with tomatoes.

Instead of quickly being able to come up with the area growing the tomatoes tainted with the deadly Salmonella Saintpaul bacteria, FDA has been dribbling out a list of areas NOT ASSOCIATED WITH THE OUTBREAK.  

Today, the first piece of old Mexico was added to that "safe" list in the form of "Baja California (Norte)"

That would be Northern Baja California, as marked on the map, for those of you who would prefer our government keeps giving us vital information in the King’s English.

FDA says: "Product lots of tomatoes harvested in this State in Mexico are allowed export into the U.S. with a certificate issued by the Secretaria de Fomento Agropecuario del Gobierno del Estado de Baja California (Agency)."

We think that last part has to do with getting a paper signed by the local Mexican agriculture official. 

Just ahead of this piece of old Mexico, New Mexico and Indiana were added to the safe list.

If you do not know where the tomatoes in your store or local drive thru fast food joint are grown, FDA says you should ask around.   If everybody is clueless, like FDA, you should not risk eating tomatoes.  Got it?

Our count of states with 333 confirmed cases of Salmonella saintpaul from tainted tomatoes stands at 25 plus the District of Columbia.   Health experts figure for every confirmed case of Salmonella, another 40 gut it out at home without seeing a doctor.   That would mean, this outbreak has in all probability  made at least 13,320 people sick so far.
We continue below with the official update from FDA:Continue Reading Some Tomato Growing Areas Of Mexico Said To Be Safe

Since yesterday’s update of the numbers from the Centers for Disease Control, it appears that new cases of Salmonella Saintpaul have turned up in Ohio, Kentucky, and the District of Columbia.

The Columbus Dispatch reports:

Three cases of salmonella have been reported in central Ohio and linked to the national outbreak involving tomatoes, according to

…

Everybody knows that coming "close" usually does not count.  For the last couple news cycles, top officials from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration(FDA) including Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach have been quoted saying that the agency is "very close" to naming the source of the tainted tomatoes that have spread Salmonella Saintpaul to 17 states.…