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Subscribe to RSSFive months after the first report of listeria infections tied to contaminated cantaloupe, victims of the outbreak continue to die. But just how many isn't clear.
A lawyer representing those sickened says four more people have died after lingering illnesses linked to eating the tainted fruit last summer. But officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say the agency has been notified of just two more deaths tied to the outbreak. Those deaths occurred "well before" the agency's Dec. 8 "final" report, but were logged only after, said Lola Russell, a spokeswoman for the CDC.
At that time, CDC reported 30 deaths and one miscarriage related to the outbreak, part of 146 illnesses in 28 states.
The discrepancy may lie in how outbreak-related deaths are reported by state-level officials, Russell wrote in an e-mail.
"It can be unclear whether a death is directly related to infection with listeria when a patient dies many weeks or months after first becoming ill with listeria infection, especially if the patient was elderly or had serious medical conditions that also can lead to death," Lola Russell wrote. "The count of outbreak-related deaths is not final and may still change."
Bill Marler, a Seattle food safety lawyer, said that three of his clients have died in the weeks since the CDC report. They include Paul Schwarz, 92, of Kansas City, Mo.; Sharon Jones, 62, of Castle Rock, Colo.; and Mike Hauser, 68, of Monument, Colo. Dale L. Braddock, 79, of Omaha, Neb., also reportedly died after contracting a listeria infection.
Russell, of the CDC, could not provide the states where the two deaths beyond the 30 the agency has previously counted occurred.
Marler and other food safety lawyers are suing producers and distributors of the tainted fruit, including Jensen Farms of Holly, Colo., where federal inspectors found evidence that poor sanitation, poor storage practices and dirty equipment caused the deadly outbreak. Illnesses were first reported on Sept. 2; recall of the entire crop of cantaloupes soon followed.
Related:
- Final tally on cantaloupe crisis: 146 sick, 30 dead
- Tiny listeria survivor comes home for Christmas
- Consumers couldn't have washed away cantaloupe contamination
Leave a Comment:
Does anyone else find the headline to this article hilarious? Watch out for the cantaloupe outbreak, everyone!
No?
Me either. But what do I know? Afterall Listeria is a bacterial disease and you are a virologist so since it isnt a virus that must be naturally funny to you anyway.
It's funny until you realize that it isn't satire. They're seriously trying to evoke fear of a killer outbreak that's sweeping the nation at 10 deaths per month. At this shockingly linear rate, we'll all be dead in 2.5 million years!
I found it hilarious, and checked comments to make sure I wasn't alone. Apparently my sanity is intact.
When I woke up there were cantaloupe in my kitchen. I don't remember buying any cantaloupe.
Why are people still eating them? It is stupid to eat a known contaminated food, yet for some idotic reason people are still eating it, baffling.
No, I think what the article said was that these folks - the ones who've recently died, were made sick during that original outbreak along with the others ... only they lingered for a while ... but eventually sucumbed to the virus.
Morlack, if you go to the store right now and buy a melon and eat it, you're 300x more likely to die in a car accident on the way to the store than from the melon you just ate.
So the question you should be asking is why idiots continue to get into these death trap vehicles?!
Are you kidding? It was one field in Colorado that was tainted. All cantaloupes aren't tainted.
What a joke. 100 people die EVERY DAY in car accidents in America and they go unmentioned. But 30 people (many with underlying health issues) die from contaminated fruit over the course of three months (that's 300 times fewer) and it makes the front page. This is journalism??
The worst part about this is that people are going to simply ignore and distrust modern journalism and when something bad actually does happen, it'll be a case of the journalist who cried wolf.
U dumb FK!
How many people die daily from pharmaceuticals? We never read about that.
Can it be possible a man-made crisis?
shut down these raghead and mex gardens...these jakoffs don't care about human safety!!!
@John D 303905...before make any racial slur, those cotamninated cantaloupes, don't originated on any "raghead and mex gardens", thet were produce here in Colorado by a White, All American family.
The only raghead here is you,moron!!! people like you make the bad seeds of this country, you have to see everything through your idiotic stupid racism, redneck scum bag!
Celtman tell us you are one of Alinsky' 'useful idiots' please. No one who lives in America and has access to a computer really spells as badly as you do and secondly your command of the trash vocabulary singles you out as to use your words: a racist, idiotic, stupid, scum.
Now did you contrive your pathetic comment or did someone write it for you ?
How nice of you to submit to some gentle educational comments.
You fool and I mean that in the nicest manner, idiot !
I'm pretty sure every one of us here understood what Celtman was saying, and I think the substance of his comment was far more pertinent and intelligible than what you wrote, Josh Brogan ....
Cantaloupe seems harmless enough. Is the solution to food safety to simply not eat?
Of course there continues to be deaths or serious illness from the eating of cantaloupe. Why wouldn’t deaths continue ? Why do DEATHS CONTINUE ? BECAUSE most of the cantaloupe being sold comes from MEXICO. Now for those of you who are unaware of this fact read carefully the following.
Most if not all of the vegetables and fruits grown in MEXICO are watered with sewer water. Let me say that another way: the growers use SEWER water to irrigate their crops.
In addition to that the MEXICAN worker defecates/urinates in the fields because the grower does not furnish any of those wonderfully aromatic out houses for their use. So instead of walking a half mile to take a leak they simply accommodate themselves in the fields. Get the picture?
Now maybe we Americans should consider not buying any fruit or vegetables grown in Mexico? I NEVER by anything labeled as grown in Mexico. I will buy some products from Peru but not Mexico.
So here is the bottom line folks: the Federal Agriculture department does not monitor the fruits or vegetables from Mexico as they should. Maybe we should get rid of this government bureaucracy and require the various states to PROTECT the citizenry of the United States of America and let Mexico concentrate on what it does best: which is drug making, drug distribution, murders and completing their invasion of the great south western states like Arizona, New Mexico, California and of course Colorado?
Hmm… a nice juicy apple from Washington State sounds really good at this time.
Final paragraph of the article:
"Marler and other food safety lawyers are suing producers and distributors of the tainted fruit, including Jensen Farms of Holly, Colo., where federal inspectors found evidence that poor sanitation, poor storage practices and dirty equipment caused the deadly outbreak. Illnesses were first reported on Sept. 2; recall of the entire crop of cantaloupes soon followed."
This particular outbreak had very little to do with Mexico and Central/South America and more to do with local farmers in our great state of Colorado who didn't take the initiative to set up a clean environment for their crops. Importing fruits and vegetables isn't always a bad thing. I would import foods too if our local growers have growing conditions as deplorable if not worse than the ones you mentioned. Mexicans/South Americans are more than drug dealers but hey, according to your own logic everyone in the US is a drug addict since we spend more money on drugs than any other nation on Earth.
fruit salad yummy yummy!