California death linked to romaine lettuce
Worst outbreak of E. coli in a decade leaves more ailing
Tainted romaine lettuce has been blamed for one death in California, as federal health officials added more than 20 more victims to the worst E. coli outbreak in more than a decade.
The person who died in California has not been identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which expanded its tally of victims Wednesday to 121 in 25 states.
Health officials say the contamination so far has been traced to romaine lettuce grown around Yuma, Ariz. — part of the growing region that produces 90 percent of the nation's winter lettuce, and which has largely stopped growing the crop.
The CDC said last week that whole head romaine lettuce from Harrison Farms near Yuma has been linked to eight cases among prisoners in a Nome, Ala., detention facility. At least a dozen other locations are under scrutiny for links to the remaining cases, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
The FDA is “examining all possibilities, including that contamination may have occurred at any point along the growing, harvesting, packaging, and distribution chain.”
The FDA noted that the other cases were linked to restaurant salads in which romaine lettuce was the only common ingredient.
There has been no recall, in part because the lettuce traced to the Yuma farm, harvested between March 5-16, would be far beyond its 21-day shelf life, and no more lettuce is being grown on Harrison's fields, officials said last week.
The winter lettuce season in the Yuma area and the adjacent Imperial Valley in California is largely over, and no other growing region thus far has been linked to any illnesses.
The most recent spate of illnesses began April 21, about a month after the outbreak first was reported, the CDC said. Three more states were added to the outbreak map: Kentucky, Massachusetts and Utah, the agency said.
More cases can be expected due to delays in onset, identification and reporting of illnesses, the CDC has warned.
The E. coli strain has been identified as one that produces strong versions of Shiga toxins, which bind to blood cells and can destroy organ linings — a scenario that has sent 52 people to hospitals, including 10 with kidney failure, the CDC said. That hospitalization rate is far higher than usual, the CDC said.
The outbreak is the worst of its kind since 2006, when about 200 people were sickened by contaminated spinach from the Salinas Valley, the CDC said.