Salmonella infects over 1,000 in US; peppers now eyed

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-07-10 10:40

"I understand the frustration" that after weeks of warnings, the outbreak is not solved, Tauxe said. "But we really are working as hard and as fast as we can to sort out this complicated situation and protect the health of the American people."

Added FDA food safety chief Dr. David Acheson: "It's just been a spectacularly complicated and prolonged outbreak."

The outbreak is not over, or even showing a sign of slowing, said Tauxe. About 25 to 40 cases have been reported daily for weeks now, to a total of 1,017 known since the outbreak began April 10.

Illnesses now have been reported in 41 states and four cases in Canada, three of which were thought to have been contracted while the people traveled in the United States. The source of the fourth case still is being investigated.

At least 300 people became ill in June, with the latest falling sick on June 26. Two deaths are associated with the outbreak - a Texas man in his 80s, and another Texas man who died of cancer but for whom salmonella may have played a role - and 203 people have been hospitalized.

The toll far surpasses what had been considered the largest foodborne outbreak of the past decade, 715 salmonella cases linked to peanut butter in 2006, Tauxe said. In the mid-1990s, well over 1,000 cases were reported of cyclospora linked to raspberries, and previous large outbreaks of salmonella from ice cream and milk.

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