Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday that 72 diseases, including 13 deaths linked to contaminated fruit. State officials say they and local investigation into three other deaths that can be connected.
The death toll released Tuesday by the CDC - including newly-confirmed deaths in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Texas - has exceeded the number of deaths from an outbreak of Salmonella in peanut almost three years ago. Nine people died in the epidemic.
The CDC said Tuesday that they have confirmed two deaths in Texas and one death each in Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. Last week, the CDC has 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 the fifth died, while the health authorities in Kansas and Wyoming said they are investigating more deaths possibly linked to contaminated fruit.
Listeria is more deadly than the known pathogens such as Salmonella and E. coli, these epidemics usually cause many more diseases. Twenty-one died in an outbreak of listeria poisoning in 1998 back to contaminated hot dogs and possibly deli meats because of Foods in March, a subsidiary of Sara Lee Corp., another outbreak in 1985 killed 52 people and was linked to Mexican soft cheese.
Listeria usually only get sick elderly people, pregnant women and others with weakened immune systems. The CDC said the average age is 78 and disgusted that one of the five who become ill may die.
Dr. Robert Tauxe of the CDC says the number of illnesses and deaths will probably grow in the coming weeks, because the symptoms of listeria are not always right away. It may take four weeks or more for a person to become ill after eating food contaminated with Listeria.
"The incubation time is long is a real problem," Tauxe said. "People who eat contaminated food two weeks ago, or even a week ago could still become ill weeks later."
CDC reported 72 cases and deaths in 18 states. Cases of listeriosis have been reported in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Most diseases have been reported in Colorado, he saw sickened 15. Fourteen patients have been reported in Texas, 10 in New Mexico and eight in Oklahoma.
The outbreak was traced Jensen Farms in Holly, Colorado, which is contaminated melons recalled earlier this month. The Food and Drug Administration, said state health officials had found listeria melons in grocery stores in the state and the home of the victim, who had grown Jensen Farms. The positions of the disease was found in samples of equipment and packaging equipment melon Jensen Farms' in Granada, Colorado
The FDA investigation into the cause of food-borne outbreaks, has not released details on how contamination could have happened. The agency says that the investigation is ongoing.
Rocky Ford cantaloupe farms Jensen were shipped from July 29 through Sept. 10 at 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.
Recalled Melons can be labeled as "Colorado Grown", "Product Distributed by Frontier," "Jensenfarms.com" or "Sweet Rocky Ford." Not all cantaloupes recalled are marked with a label, the FDA said.
Unlike many pathogens that can grow Listeria at room temperature and even the refrigerator. The FDA and the CDC recommends that anyone can have one of the contaminated cantaloupes immediately throw away and clean and disinfect all surfaces that may have touched.
About 800 cases of listeriosis are in the United States each year, according to the CDC, and usually three or four buds. Most of them date back to processed meats and soft cheeses, where Listeria is more common.
Produce has rarely been the culprit, but federal investigators say they saw more to produce the listeria-related illnesses in the last two years. It was found in 2009 in the cabbage and celery in 2010.
Although most healthy adults can consume without side effects Listeria can kill the elderly and those whose immune system. It is also dangerous for pregnant women because it easily crosses the fetus. Dr. Tauxe, the CDC, said the type of listeria linked to the melon is not one that is associated with pregnancy-related diseases, however. Health officials and federal state have not definitively linked to miscarriages, stillbirths or childhood diseases in the current outbreak.
Symptoms include fever, muscle aches and Listeria, often with other gastrointestinal symptoms. Victims often become disabled and unable to speak.
Debbie Frederick, said his mother knew something was wrong when his father, 87 years, Thomas William Beach, collapsed at his home in Mustang, Oklahoma, and could not get up. He died a few days later, on September 1. The family learned of his death was related to eating melon farms and continued Jensen.
"First, we just need a jolt," said Frederick. "Then it is deposited, which was still alive, if this had not occurred. It is life, what?"
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