Five 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

Jonathan Adams for msnbc.com

Newborn Kendall Paciorek is fed by her big sister, Madison, 4, on her first day home from the hospital. Kendall was born prematurely when her mother contracted listeria after eating contaminated cantaloupe. Kendall has little energy for feeding, so when she refuses a bottle, she must be fed through a stomach tube.

Three months after she was born, Kendall Paciorek is finally home, just in time for Christmas.

The premature girl from Fishers, Ind., is one of the tiniest victims of last summer’s deadly listeria outbreak in cantaloupe, which sickened 146 people, including 30 who died.

Kendall spent the first several weeks of her life in an incubator, fighting off an infection contracted when her mother ate tainted melon traced to Jensen Farms of Holly, Colo.

She’s strong enough now to sleep in her own crib in the house where big sister Madison, 4, loves to color pictures of Santa.

Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared the outbreak over this month, and the rest of the world seems poised to move on.

But for Kendall and her family, the impact of the foodborne illness caused by a summer snack is just beginning.

“Right now they don’t know what’s going to happen to her in the long term,” said Michelle Wakley-Paciorek, Kendall’s 41-year-old mother. “We were told she could have mental and or physical delays.”

Kendall was one of three newborns diagnosed with listeria infections in the outbreak that largely affected the elderly, according to the CDC. Four pregnant women became ill; one had a miscarriage.

For now, there’s no sign of serious trouble, other than the feeding tube that runs into Kendall’s stomach because the baby has had difficulty eating.

Jonathan Adams for msnbc.com

Dad Dave Paciorek, sister Madison and mom Michelle Wakley-Paciorek are grateful to bring baby Kendall home from the hospital in time for Christmas.

With help, she’s gained weight, now topping 7 pounds, up from 3 pounds, 11 ounces when she arrived suddenly on Sept. 21.

That was a week after the federal Food and Drug Administration announced a voluntary recall of the entire crop of fresh, whole cantaloupe from Jensen Farms.

But for Kendall and her mom, it was already too late.  

“We’re thinking I ate cantaloupe sometime in the first three to four weeks of August,” Wakley recalled. “I ate it probably multiple times. You try to eat better because you’re pregnant.”

Wakley never became violently ill. Instead, she suffered headaches, muscle aches, fever and chills for several weeks before she started having contractions during a pedicure.

“I couldn’t even believe I was in labor,” said Wakley, who was rushed to an emergency department and given drugs to halt delivery.  

Despite the effort, Kendall was born hours later, but so small and sick that doctors feared for her life.

Blood tests later revealed that both mother and baby were infected with listeria later traced to the tainted Colorado cantaloupe.

The months since then have been a blur of hospital rooms, doctors’ visits and worried conversations about Kendall’s future.

“You almost panic because they tell you about all kinds of learning disabilities and other problems,” she said. “It’s been like an emotional roller-coaster.”

It’s not clear whether Wakley can continue working, or whether she’ll need to quit her job to care for Kendall and her sister full-time. Her husband, Dave Paciorek, 41, is a senior manager at Federal Express.

The family has hired Seattle food safety lawyer Bill Marler, to represent them in a private lawsuit to make sure their daughter gets any care she needs. Marler said he has about 45 clients with cases tied to the Jensen Farms outbreak, including families of 10 of the people who died.

So far, Kendall Paciorek is the youngest victim he represents, Marler said. "I think there are probably dozens of those cases out there," he added.

Food and Drug Administration inspectors found that the outbreak was traced to dirty equipment, faulty sanitation and bad storage practices at the Colorado farm.

That’s especially galling to Michelle Wakley, who said she’s gotten over the “why me?” phase of shock about her daughter’s illness. Even as she prepares to celebrate Christmas with Kendall at home, she finds it hard to hide her frustration that simple sanitation could have saved her family such heartache.

“It’s reckless. It’s something that could have been prevented,” Wakley said. “No one should have to go through this.”

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Government health officials issued a final tally Thursday for a months-long outbreak of listeria food poisoning in contaminated cantaloupe: 146 sick and 30 dead.

Those numbers reflected infections in 28 states tied to tainted whole melons from Jensen Farms of Holly, Colo., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. Faulty processing and shipping practices at the firm's Granada, Colo., packing facility led to the dozens of illnesses and deaths -- and decimated the melon market in several states.

The outbreak is the worst since a California listeria outbreak in 1985 in which contaminated Mexican-style fresh cheese caused 52 deaths, including many stillbirths, according to the CDC.

Among 140 ill people who offered information about what they ate, 94 percent reported eating cantaloupe in the month before they got sick, including many who said it came from one region in southeastern Colorado. The outbreak of listeria monocytogenes, the first detected in melons, led to at least 142 hospitalizations and a miscarriage.

More than 310,000 cases of potentially tainted cantaloupes were shipped to at least 24 states between July 29 and Sept. 10.

The toll from listeria-tainted cantaloupe climbed higher again on Wednesday, with 139 sickened and 29 dead in the outbreak that may be the deadliest in U.S. history, health officials reported.

In addition to the reported deaths, one pregnant woman had a miscarriage after becoming infected with any of four strains of listeria bacteria linked to whole, fresh cantaloupes from Jensen Farms of Holly, Colo. Reports of illness have been logged in 28 states.

The outbreak is the worst since a California listeria outbreak in 1985 in which contaminated Mexican-style fresh cheese caused 52 deaths, including many stillbirths, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

By other accounts, the cantaloupe crisis may already have matched the adult deaths confirmed in that outbreak. In a New England Journal of Medicine analysis in 1988, investigators said the outbreak caused deaths of 28 adults and newborns and 20 stillbirths or miscarriages.

CDC officials weren't immediately available to comment on the trajectory of the outbreak, which was expected to continue to claim lives and cause illness through the fall. Listeria infections have a long incubation period, so people who ate tainted cantaloupe two months ago may only now be reporting illness, health officials said. The outbreak toll may be slowing, noted Bill Marler, a Seattle food poisoning lawyer who represents several clients sickened by the fruit. But it's still not over.

"I think the hopeful sign is that it's tapering off," he said. "But people are still in the hospital, some in critical condition. Will that number go up? Unfortunately, I think it will."

Dirty equipment, an unsanitary environment and poor storage practicescaused the outbreak at the packing site operated by Jensen Farms, the federal Food and Drug Administration found. It's not clear whether Jensen Farms officials will be required to testify in front of Congress. Members of the Energy and Commerce subcomittee had requested a hearing no later than Thursday, but no hearing has yet been scheduled.

Twenty-eight people are now dead after contracting listeria infections tied to contaminated cantaloupe, federal health officials reported Tuesday.

A total of 133 people have been sickened by the outbreak, which continues to claim victims more than a month after fresh, whole melons grown and packed at Jensen Farms in Holly, Colo., were recalled, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Dirty equipment, poor sanitation and bad storage techniques were blamed for the outbreak, which has led to illnesses in 26 states, federal Food and Drug Administration officials announced last week. Members of Congress have asked Jensen Farm owners to appear at a staff briefing likely scheduled for next week and to bring all relevant documents from the outbreak.

Deaths tied to the listeria-tainted cantaloupe have been reported in a dozen states, including seven in Colorado, five in New Mexico, three in Kansas, two each in Louisiana, Missouri, New York and Texas and one each in Indiana, Maryland, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Wyoming. Four illnesses were related to pregnancy, with one illness diagnosed in a newborn and one miscarriage reported.

Ed Andrieski / AP

Cantaloupes rot in the afternoon heat on a field on the Jensen Farms near Holly, Colo., last month. Whole fruit contaminated with listeria have been blamed for 25 deaths in the worst food poisoning outbreak in the U.S. in a quarter century.

Now that federal investigators have identified dirty equipment, faulty sanitation and bad storage practices at a Colorado farm as the likely cause of a cantaloupe listeria outbreak that has killed 25 people, top U.S. food safety experts say there's one actor in this deadly drama that shouldn't be blamed: The consumer.

No amount of washing, scrubbing, bleaching or peeling would have cleaned cantaloupes contaminated by Jensen Farms' packing practices enough to remove listeria bacteria that has sickened at least 123 people and killed 25 in the deadliest outbreak in a quarter-century.

"There's nothing consumers could have done," said Dr. Doug Powell, a professor of food safety at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan.

Federal Food and Drug Administration officials reported Wednesday that standing pools of water, inaccessible drains, hard-to-clean equipment and failure to cool cantaloupes fresh from the field before placing them in cold storage all likely contributed to the growth and spread of four strains of listeria bacteria at the Jensen Farms packing site in Granada, Colo.

The cold, moist environment maintained over time is exactly what listeria needs to thrive, said Dr. Mike Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy and a food safety expert at the University of Minnesota.

In addition, listeria could have been introduced into the packing center from sporadic bacteria in the field or from a dump truck that hauled culled cantaloupe back and forth to a cattle yard and then parked next to where the whole melons were being processed. Cattle are known reservoirs for listeria.

The bacteria clearly contaminated a huge proportion of the more than 310,000 cases of cantaloupe -- between 1.5 million and 4.5 million fruit -- that were recalled by Jensen Farms in mid-September, said Powell.

"Given that 25 people are dead, this was a massive contamination to have that impact," he said.

It's not clear whether people were infected by bacteria that clung to the fruit's porous, bumpy rind, whether the germs somehow migrated into the flesh of the fruit, or whether people spread contamination through the fruit by slicing it with a knife, Powell said. Good hygiene and food safety practices can lessen the chance of infection, but the contamination shouldn't be there in the first place.

"The idea that this is the consumer's responsibility is just nonsense," he said. "What's missing is any verification that individual farmers are doing what they're supposed to be doing."

Preventing the conditions that allowed the outbreak to occur and continue is the primary goal of the FDA's ongoing food safety efforts said the agency's commissioner, Dr. Margaret Hamburg.

“If we’re to have a food safety system that truly prevents foodborne illness, we must all practice prevention,” she told reporters.

That's particularly incumbent on melon growers, who have felt the brunt of consumer fear as sales of cantaloupes have plummeted.

"Don't rely on paperwork if your brand relies on selling safe food," Powell said. "Any commodity is only as good as its worst grower."

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Dirty equipment blamed for deadly outbreak in cantaloupe

Illnesses and deaths tied to listeria-tainted cantaloupe continued to rise Tuesday, with federal health officials reporting 123 sickened and 25 dead in the ongoing food poisoning outbreak.

More than 310,000 cases of cantaloupe recalled by Jensen Farms of Holly, Colo., are long gone from the shelves and pantries of stores and should be long past storage in refrigerators. But all of the victims in the outbreak that has now affected 26 states became sick on or before July 31, and more are likely to be diagnosed because people can develop listeriosis up to two months after eating contaminated food, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The deadliest outbreak of food poisoning in more than 25 years has caused fatalities in a dozen states: six in Colorado, five in New Mexico, two each in Kansas, Louisiana, New York and Texas and one each in Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Wyoming. People who've died have ranged in age from 48 to 96 years, with a media age of 87.

Illnesses have occured in people younger than 1 to 96, with a median age of 78. Most illnesses have occured in people older than 60. Four illnesses were related to pregnancy, including a newborn who fell ill. One miscarriage has been reported.

Federal Food and Drug Admnistration officials have not disclosed the cause of the outbreak cause by four strains of listeria monocytogenes.

An outbreak of listeria infections tied to contaminated Colorado cantaloupe has now sickened 116 people and left 23 dead, federal health officials reported Wednesday, making this the deadliest outbreak in more than 25 years. In addition, one pregnant woman who became ill had a miscarriage.

The rising toll reflects illnesses and deaths in 25 states caused by four outbreak strains of listeria, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. All of the illnesses began on or after July 31, but more are expected because people can develop listeriosis up to two months after eating contaminated food.

An investigation into the cause of the outbreak linked to recalled cantaloupe from Jensen Farms in Holly, Colo., has not yet concluded, a federal Food and Drug Administration spokesman said.

Deaths have been reported in a dozen states, including five in Colorado; five in New Mexico; two each in Kansas, Louisiana and Texas; and one each in Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Oklahoma and Wyoming.

Miscarriage blamed on listeria-tainted cantaloupe

The 23 deaths have surpassed 21 deaths tied to a listeria outbreak in 1998 tied to contaminated hot dogs and deli meat.

Illnesses have been reported in people aged 22 to 96, with a median age of 78. Most of those sickened are older than 60. Four of the illnesses were related to a pregnancy; one was diagnosed in a newborn and three were diagnosed in pregnant women.

Recalls tied to the outbreak include more than 300,000 cases of whole cantaloupes from Jensen Farms, and two different recalls of cut cantaloupe: A Sept. 23 recall of nearly 600 pounds of fresh cantaloupe from Carol's Cuts LLC of Kansas and an Oct. 6 recall of nearly 5,000 individual packages of cantaloupe by Fruit Fresh Up Inc. of Depew, N.Y.

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