July 14 CDC update and seeds of doubt

Here are the latest statistics from the CDC Website and headlines from the consumer press about the outbreak.


Since April, 1148 persons infected with Salmonella Saintpaul with the same genetic fingerprint have been identified in 42 states, the District of Columbia, and Canada.

Among the 804 persons with information available, illnesses began between April 10 and July 4, 2008, including 348 who became ill on June 1 or later. Many steps must occur between a person becoming ill and the determination that the illness was caused by the outbreak strain of Salmonella; these steps take an average of 2-3 weeks. Therefore, an illness reported today may have begun 2-3 weeks ago.

Health officials have worked continuously since late May to investigate this outbreak. CDC has sent 28 people to the field to work with other public health officials. The investigation is complex and difficult. One difficult aspect is that people often have difficulty remembering exactly what foods they ate, and remembering specific ingredients in those foods is even more difficult. Although laboratory testing of foods might help identify the source, perishable foods that were consumed by ill persons are often not available to test. When food items are mixed together and consumed in the same dish, all the items may be statistically linked to illness. In that case, determining by statistical means which item caused the illness can be difficult or impossible. Tracing suspect produce items back to processors and growers is an integral part of the effort to identify a single source and a possible means of contamination.



From the Web:

Seeds of doubt sown in salmonella case

Team to demand U.S. clear Mexican tomatoes of salmonella