Current Event 9.26.11
As many as sixteen deaths have been linked to poisoned cantaloupes in Colorado. This deadly epidemic has caused deaths in Texas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Maryland. Reports show that this outbreak of Listeria is the deadliest in a decade. Also, this disease has caused more deaths than the salmonella poisoning from peanuts over three years ago. Listeria was traced to hot dogs and deli meat in 1998, which killed twenty-one people. Thirteen years later in 1985, fifty-two people got Listeria poisoning from Mexican-style soft cheese. People more likely to contract Listeria are the elderly, pregnant women, and people with weak immune systems. Reports show that the median age of the deaths is 78, and one in five people can die from Listeria. It can take four weeks or more for people to show signs of this food poisoning. This bacteria has been tested, and it can survive in room temperature, to refrigerator temperature. So far, seventy-eight people have contracted the disease in eighteen different states, fourteen being reported in Texas. The most people that got Listeria are in Colorado, which is fifteen. The FDA which looks into food borne outbreaks, has not released any information on how this epidemic might have started. The Rocky Ford brand cantaloupes were shipped to twenty five states, including 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. There has been a recall on this item, and the FDA encourages people to sanitize surfaces the infected cantaloupes might have touched. Fevers, muscle aches, and gastrointestinal symptoms are just some of the indications of this bacteria. Each year, 800 cases of Listeria are reported, more frequently in the last two years.
Until I found this article, I hadn’t heard of this disease. I think t hat there should be more warning on deadly outbreaks like this, as I was in the store the other day and my mom and I almost bought a cantaloupe. There was probably never a chance the cantaloupes were poisoned, but you never know. There should be more recalls and warnings about this outbreak of Listeria in the states where the poisoned cargo was shipped. More people need to know about this, especially older people and pregnant women. Sixteen people have already died, and seventy-eight are sick, and many more will follow. It is still scary to think that people have died from eating infected fruit, and that many more are ill. I still think that there should be more warning and information on the cantaloupes, since I have two pregnant aunts that live in Texas and California, two of the states where the fruit had been shipped. I am interested in how this outbreak started, and what steps can be taken to prevent and fight food borne illnesses.