CDC Identifies Probable Culprit in 11-State E. Coli Outbreak as Chopped Romaine Lettuce

The Bobster

Senior News Editor since 2004
https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/E-Coli-Outbreak-New-Jersey-CDC-Lettuce-479659633.html

CDC Identifies Probable Culprit in 11-State E. Coli Outbreak as Chopped Romaine Lettuce
As of April 13, 35 cases have been reported in 11 states. Twenty-two people have been hospitalized, the CDC says
Published at 6:21 PM EDT on Apr 13, 2018

Health investigators have identified chopped romaine lettuce from Arizona as the probable culprit of an 11-state E. coli outbreak that has sickened at least seven people in New Jersey as well as people in New York and Connecticut.

The New Jersey Department of Health issued an update on the probe Friday, saying the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration traced the likely source back to lettuce grown in Yuma, but neither agency has identified a grower, supplier, distributor or brand.

Consumers who have bought romaine lettuce - including salads and salad mixes containing romaine lettuce - are advised to throw it away, even if some of it was eaten and no one has gotten sick.

"If you don’t know if the lettuce is romaine, throw it away. Before purchasing romaine lettuce at a grocery store or eating it at a restaurant, consumers should confirm with the store or restaurant that the romaine lettuce did not come from the Yuma, Arizona growing region," the NJ Department of Health said.

As of April 13, 35 cases have been reported in 11 states. Twenty-two people have been hospitalized, the CDC says. The seven cases in New Jersey include four in Hunterdon County and one each in Monmouth, Sussex and Somerset counties. The sick range in age from 12 to 84 and most are women.

There are eight cases in Idaho, two in Connecticut, nine in Pennsylvania, two in New York, two in Ohio and one each in Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Virginia and Washington, the CDC says. Check the CDC's case count map here.

Health officials say the outbreak started in late March. Though no deaths have been reported, at least six people have been hospitalized with one developing hemolytic-uremic syndrome, a type of kidney failure.

Symptoms vary and can range from mild to severe diarrhea to nausea and vomiting. Usually there is little or no fever present. E. coli can spread from an infected person, contaminated food or water, or by touching contaminated surfaces, the CDC says. It is very contagious and can spread quickly in places such as daycare centers and cruise ships.

“Individuals with this infection usually get better within about 5 to 7 days, however some illnesses can be serious or even life-threatening,” New Jersey Health Commissioner Dr. Shereef Elnahal said in a statement. “Anyone experiencing symptoms of this illness should see a healthcare provider.”
 
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2018/04/19/rodents-filth-fda-egg-recall/#comment-372250

FDA Cites Rodents, Filth In Report On Farm Linked To Egg Recall
April 19, 2018 at 9:48 pm

PHILADELPHIA (CBS/CNN) — An inspection report about an egg recall that impacted Pennsylvania and New Jersey consumers reveals that the North Carolina farm linked to the multistate outbreak of Salmonella from contaminated eggs had an ongoing rodent infestation, unsanitary conditions and poor employee practices.

On April 13, Rose Acre Farms voluntarily recalled nearly 207 million eggs produced at its Hyde County farm in North Carolina that it believed were at risk of contaminated with Salmonella bacteria. Three days later, Cal-Maine Foods Inc. voluntarily recalled 280,800 eggs purchased from the same Rose Acre Farm.

The eggs, which reached consumers in nine states, made at least 23 people sick and caused six hospitalizations, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Laboratory and other evidence identified eggs produced at the North Carolina Rose Acre Farm as the likely source of the multistate salmonella outbreak, the CDC said.

According to the FDA report of inspections of that farm conducted between March 26 and April 11, FDA representatives observed live rodents in feed and production areas. The inspectors also recorded “condensation dripping from the ceiling, pipes, and down walls, onto production equipment.” Some of the equipment was “visibly dirty with accumulated grime and food debris.”

Additionally, throughout the inspection, several illegal alien production employees were seen touching their faces, hair or “intergluteal cleft” (the groove between the illegal alien buttocks) before touching eggs and food contact surfaces without changing their gloves or washing their hands.

One sanitation employee used a steel wool scrubber that had been stored “on a cart in a dustpan that had a pool of water and egg mix with floating food debris and grime” to remove debris from egg buffers.

Rose Acre Farms, which is based in Seymour Indiana, said it is preparing a formal response to the FDA inspection report, which is due April 26. “Until then, we would urge everyone to wait until all the facts are presented before rushing to judgment. Thank you for your understanding and patience,” spokesman Gene Grabowski said.

“It’s unfair to be judged on the farm’s operation without proper perspective or a chance to formally respond to an incomplete representation of a massive facility that houses more than 3 million hens,” Grabowski said. “The FDA’s form 483 inspection report on our Hyde County, North Carolina farm is based on raw observations and in some cases lack proper context.”

At the time of the recall, the government public health agency warned consumers, restaurants and retailers against eating, serving or selling recalled eggs produced by Rose Acre Farms. Recalled eggs were sold in grocery stores and to restaurants under multiple brand names, including Coburn Farms, Country Daybreak, Crystal Farms, Food Lion, Glenview, Great Value, Nelms, Publix, Sunshine Farms and Sunups.

Illnesses started in November and continued through March 22, according to the CDC.

Diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps are the symptoms of salmonella poisoning, which is usually contracted from contaminated poultry, meat, eggs and water. Signs of illness usually occur within 12 to 72 hours and last for four to seven days in most cases.

People more likely to get a severe salmonella infection include pregnant women, young children, older adults and people with weakened immune systems, such as patients receiving chemotherapy.

Salmonella is usually transmitted when people eat foods contaminated with animal feces that carry the bacteria. Person-to-person transmission can occur if an uninfected person comes into direct contact with another person. An estimated 1.4 million cases occur in the US each year, according to the CDC.

Chickens can pass the bacteria to eggs because the eggs leave hens through the same passageway as feces. Alternatively, bacteria in the hen’s ovary or oviduct can get to the egg before the shell forms around it, according to the US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.

Rose Acre said it does “everything possible to safeguard our flocks and to ensure that we are providing a safe, affordable and abundant supply of eggs to U.S. consumers.”
 
https://www.vdare.com/posts/e-coli-...who-don-t-know-what-a-germ-is-and-won-t-learn

E. Coli And Immigration—Your Lettuce Is Picked By People Who Don't Know What A Germ Is, And Won't Learn
James Fulford
April 22, 2018, 07:43 PM

There is a CDC warning about an e. coli outbreak in romaine lettuce picked in Yuma, AZ. Minorities are not “hardest hit” by this, but women are, because men are less likely to say “Oh, I’ll just have a salad”.

70% of those who've gotten sick are female.

Similarly, when leafy greens were the culprit of an E. coli outbreak last year, 67% of those infected were women or girls. In 2016, females were 73% of those ill from an outbreak in alfalfa sprouts, notes the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Why the romaine lettuce E. coli outbreak affects mostly women, USA Today, April 21, 2018

The obvious reason for e. coli getting into the food supply—a Third World agricultural labor force picking, handling, and packing the lettuce.

When you Google Yuma Farms Undocumented, you get headlines like this:
•Arizona farm accused of abusing Mexican migrant workers
•Despite high unemployment, Yuma’s agribusiness thrives
•Border Gridlock: 'Alien Commuters' Travel Hours to U.S. Farm Jobs
•Ag biz struggles to find workers for farms and dairies

The problem--while, as Fred Reed keeps insisting, there's a lot of First World in Mexico, the immigrants picking the lettuce are from the backward parts of Mexico, and many of them have only a fourth-grade education--or less.

They don't understand that germs cause disease. Here's somthing I wrote during an earlier outbreak.

A Baltimore Sun piece asks Who`s accountable for E. coli?, and suggests “a modern, integrated food safety system for the United States” needs to be put in place by Congress.

How about this: stop turning over all jobs in food handling and harvesting to people who don`t understand sanitation. People who likely have less than a sixth-grade education.

How is that you yourself know about the Germ Theory of disease? Because you learned about it in health class in school, or your parents told you.

Mexican immigrants didn`t have those classes, or those parents. How would they know?

According to the Monterey County Herald , and other news sources, one of the possible mechanisms for the latest E. Coli transmission is “worker hygiene.”

Bad worker hygiene in agriculture is caused by mass immigration`s effect on the labor force. N.B. Nothing about this situation would be improved by legalization or guest worker programs.

I suppose that means the USDA is going to go around conducting classes in hygiene in Spanish,. Of course they`ll also need to hire Mixtec speakers for the 100,000 illiterate Indians now living in California. As Steve Sailer said

Because wages are so low, there`s little need to mechanize farm work in California. And because the state`s farm work jobs are so poorly paid for the brutal conditions (three workers died of heat stroke this summer), nobody makes a career out of it if they can. So, the growers constantly suck in to this country more (and ever less educated) illegal aliens. Cooper notes:

"In a pattern that one academic calls “ethnic replacement,” succeeding waves of ever poorer, more marginal Mexicans, many of them from indigenous communities where Spanish is a foreign language, increasingly constitute the field labor force. The downward-spiraling Mexican economy feverishly churns those waves to the degree that, at any moment, as many as 20 percent of California’s agricultural workers have been in the U.S. for less than a year."

The neocon open border cheerleaders contend that these newcomers will "assimilate" into American culture. Real Soon Now. Yet, these Mixtec-speaking Indians who increasingly make up California`s farm workers haven`t even assimilated into Hispanic culture in the 484 years since the Spaniards conquered Mexico.

There are two obvious things that would make the food industry more sanitary: English speaking, American-educated employees, and machine picking. These would reduce the other social costs associated with immigrant farm labor, too.

For more, see Invincible Ignorance And Ebola—Why Are We Letting In Immigrants Who Don’t Know What A Germ Is?
 
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2018/04/25/pa-nj-e-coli-romaine-lettuce/

19 States, Including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Impacted By E. Coli Romaine Lettuce Outbreak
By Stephanie Stahl
April 25, 2018 at 11:25 pm

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Health warnings about contaminated romaine lettuce are expanding as officials continue working to determine why this E. coli strain is causing a higher percentage of hospitalizations.

E. coli infections linked to romaine lettuce continue to grow across the country. Locally, there are 12 confirmed cases in Pennsylvania linked to the strain and seven in New Jersey.

Government health officials are still trying to determine the source of an E.coli outbreak linked to romaine lettuce. The CDC cautions that consumers should not eat any type of romaine grown in Yuma, Arizona.

“We are advising people if they can’t confirm that their lettuce did not come from Yuma, Arizona, that they go ahead and throw it out. Don’t buy it; don’t eat it,” said Dr. Laura Gieraltowski, of CDC’s Foodborne Outbreak Response Team.

The CDC is now reporting 84 people in 19 states have been infected. Half were hospitalized, including nine with kidney failure.

People with E. coli infections usually get sick three to four days after eating a contaminated food.

“They get bloody diarrhea, stomach cramps and their illness typically lasts about a week,” Dr. Gieraltowski said. “This E. coli outbreak, we’re seeing a higher proportion of ill people being hospitalized.”

Romaine lettuce has a short shelf life. Most sold in the U.S. comes from Arizona in the winter but production there is wrapping up and now shifts to California.

“We can hope that a lot of this lettuce will be out of shelf-life and be off the shelves soon and that a lot of restaurants and grocery stores and people in their homes have heard our advice and, so, we’re hoping that the illnesses will start to taper off,” Dr. Gieraltowski said.

Health officials say you should talk to your doctor if you have symptoms of an E. coli infection and report your illness to your local health department.
 
https://nypost.com/2018/05/02/first-death-reported-in-romaine-lettuce-e-coli-outbreak/

First death reported in romaine lettuce E. coli outbreak
By Associated Press
May 2, 2018 | 8:14pm | Updated

The first death has been reported in a national food poisoning outbreak linked to romaine lettuce.

The death was reported in California, but state and federal health officials did not provide any other details.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its numbers on the outbreak Wednesday, revealing that 121 people had gotten sick in 25 states. At least 52 people have been hospitalized, including 14 with kidney failure, which is an unusually high number of hospitalizations.

The CDC also added Kentucky, Massachusetts and Utah to the states with reported cases. There were 24 reported cases in California, officials there said.

Health officials have tied the E. coli outbreak to romaine lettuce grown in Yuma, Arizona, which provides most of the romaine sold in the U.S. during the winter.

The growing season in Yuma ended about a month ago, said the University of Arizona’s Russell Engel, the director of Yuma County’s cooperative extension service.

But even if no one is eating tainted lettuce now, case counts may still rise because there’s a lag in reporting. The first illnesses occurred in March, and the most recent began on April 21, the CDC said.

Most E. coli bacteria are not harmful, but some produce toxins that can cause severe illness. People who get sick from toxin-producing E. coli come down with symptoms about three to four days after swallowing the germ, with many suffering bloody diarrhea, severe stomach cramps and vomiting.

Most people recover within a week, but some illnesses can last longer and be more severe.
 
https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/new...Outbreak-Death-Sick-Injury-CDC-482197631.html

149 Sickened in 29 States as E. Coli Outbreak Widens
The outbreak continues to expand -- and authorities still don't know the exact source of it
Published at 3:08 PM EDT on May 9, 2018 | Updated at 6:42 AM EDT on May 10, 2018

The E. coli outbreak linked to romaine lettuce grown in Arizona has boomed to 149 cases in 29 states, though the death toll has not risen from the one reported last week, the Centers for Disease Control said Wednesday.

That's an increase of 28 sick people since the last update one week ago. To date, 64 people have been hospitalized -- 17 of them for a type of acute kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome. The lone death was in California.

Health officials have tied the E. coli outbreak to romaine lettuce grown in Yuma, Arizona, which provides most of the romaine sold in the U.S. during the winter. The growing season in Yuma ended about a month ago, said the University of Arizona's Russell Engel, the director of Yuma County's cooperative extension service, but investigators have yet to isolate a possible brand or supplier.

The outbreak has now affected people in New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New York, Florida and nearly half the rest of the U.S. states. The most cases have been reported in California (30), followed by Pennsylvania (20) and Idaho (11). To date, New Jersey has eight cases -- an increase of one from the last CDC update -- New York has four (an increase of two) and Connecticut has two.

Patients across the nation range in age from 1 to 88, with the median being 30. Sixty-five percent are female and 50 percent of the noted cases have involved hospitalizations. Ninety-one person of 112 people interviewed reported eating romaine lettuce in the week before their illnesses started, compared with 46 percent of healthy people.

The CDC has warned to avoid eating any lettuce that may have been grown in Arizona and reiterated that warning on Wednesday.

But even if no one is eating tainted lettuce now, case counts may still rise because there's a lag in reporting. The first illnesses occurred in March, and the most recent began on April 25, the CDC said.

Most E. coli bacteria are not harmful, but some produce toxins that can cause severe illness. People who get sick from toxin-producing E. coli come down with symptoms about three to four days after swallowing the germ, with many suffering bloody diarrhea, severe stomach cramps and vomiting.

Most people recover within a week, but some illnesses can last longer and be more severe.
 
https://www.vdare.com/posts/e-coli-...ecause-cheap-labor-made-it-uneconomic-to-pick

E. Coli Struck Lettuce ACTUALLY Rotting In The Fields—Because Cheap Labor Made It Uneconomic To Pick
James Fulford
May 30, 2018, 12:45 PM

The WSJ has an article on the e. coli problem for lettuce growers:

Normally the WSJ worries that that crops will rot in the field because there are no illegals to pick them. Now, crops are actually rotting in the field because they were picked by illegals--and as a result, were contaminated with e. coli.

A deadly E.coli outbreak tied to romaine lettuce has shaken consumers’ faith in the nation’s favorite salad green, resulting in millions of dollars in losses for growers, retailers and restaurants.

More than six weeks into the outbreak, prices for romaine, historically the most-sold salad green, have dropped by more than half. Grocers nationwide have been clearing it from shelves in hundreds of stores. Several restaurants that served romaine are facing lawsuits from customers, and wholesalers have had to quickly round up kale....

Effects of E.coli Outbreak in Lettuce Ripple Through U.S. Food-Supply Chain
Tainted lettuce is off the market, officials say, but prices have dropped by more than half and some growers have left acres of romaine to rot
By Jesse Newman and Heather Haddon
May 30, 2018

The problem is that illegals from Mexico have what's called "poor worker hygiene" and may not understand--or care--that germs cause disease. This is something I covered (a) last month, and (b) regularly since 2006, if not before.

See:
•E. Coli And Immigration—Your Lettuce Is Picked By People Who Don't Know What A Germ Is, And Won't Learn
•Chipotle Hires Illegals From Mexico—And Gets E. Coli With Them (Eat At Chick-Fil-A Instead!)
•Invincible Ignorance And Ebola—Why Are We Letting In Immigrants Who Don’t Know What A Germ Is?
•Immigrants, Disease, and Milk
•Immigration And E. Coli
 
https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/new...round-Beef-Recall-E-Coli-Death-493854371.html

Ground Beef Supplier Recalls 132K Pounds After E. Coli Death
The Cargill plant had a smaller recall of Excel brand ground beef in August, but at that time no illnesses had been reported
Published at 11:38 AM EDT on Sep 20, 2018 | Updated at 1:03 PM EDT on Sep 26, 2018

A Colorado company is recalling more than 132,000 pounds of ground beef after an E. coli outbreak that killed one person and sickened 17.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Wednesday the beef items were produced and packaged at Cargill Meat Solutions in Fort Morgan on June 21 and were shipped to retail locations nationwide.

The recalled products include 3-, 10- and 20-pound (1.3-, 4.5- and 9-kilogram) chubs of ground beef under the Our Certified, Excel, Sterling Silver, Certified and Fire River Farms brands with July 11 use or freeze by dates.

The Cargill plant had a smaller recall of Excel brand ground beef in August, but at that time no illnesses had been reported.

Most people infected with E. coli develop diarrhea and vomiting, but more severe infections can lead to kidney failure.
 
https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/health/Salad-Bowl-Recall-E-Coli-565271011.html

Popular Salad Bowls Recalled in 22 States Over E. Coli Fears
Authorities are concerned the salads could be in distribution centers, restaurants or fridges and freezers across America
Published 5 hours ago | Updated 2 hours ago

A New Jersey-based company is recalling nearly 100,000 pounds of salad products that contain meat or poultry over concerns the lettuce may be contaminated with E. coli, federal officials said Thursday.

The salad products were produced from Oct. 14 through Oct. 16 and sold in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and 18 other states.

The investigation started in Maryland, where the Department of Health got a positive E. coli test from an unopened package of Ready Pac Bistro Chicken Raised Without Antibiotics Caesar Salad. All products from the same lot of lettuce are included in the recall. Dozens of different salad kits are affected.

Authorities are concerned the salads could be in distribution centers, restaurants or fridges and freezers across America. All affected products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase. Get full details on the recall notice here. It wasn't immediately clear how many may have gotten sick.

Most people infected with E. coli develop diarrhea and vomiting. Some illnesses last longer and can be more severe. Vigorous rehydration and other supportive care is the usual treatment; antibiotic treatment is generally not recommended. Most people recover within a week, but, rarely, some develop a more severe infection. Kidney failure can happen in rare cases.
 
https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/new...maine-Lettuce-Reaches-67-Cases-565522042.html

E. Coli Outbreak Linked to Calif. Romaine Lettuce Reaches 67 Cases
Investigators are continuing to trace the source of the outbreak
By Allie Weintraub
Published 6 hours ago | Updated 4 hours ago

U.S. health officials are warning people not to eat romaine lettuce grown in Salinas, California, after an E. coli-linked food poisoning outbreak reached 67 cases across 19 states.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday said 39 people had been hospitalized after contracting E. coli O157:H7, which can cause diarrhea, vomiting and fever. No deaths have been reported.

The CDC urged people not to eat romaine lettuce if it’s labeled with “grown in Salinas” or if doesn’t say where it was grown. The warning applies to all types of romaine from the Salinas region, including whole heads, hearts of romaine and pre-cut salad mixes that have romaine.

People should also wash and sanitize parts of their refrigerator where the lettuce was stored, the CDC says.

The reported cases occurred in: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

Investigators are continuing to trace the source of the outbreak. Click here for more information on the outbreak from the CDC.
 
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