Blog #5: Listeria outbreak in cantaloupes

There has been a terrible outbreak in the world dealing with cantaloupe. Cantaloupes grown on Jenson farm have been recalled because of listeria found in them. Listeria is more deadly, yet less known, than pathogens such as salmonella and E. coli. Symptoms of listeria include fever, muscle aches, gastrointestinal issues, and could even cause the victim to be unable to speak. Listeria is usually not found in produce, however, in the past two years there have been outbreaks in sprouts and celery. So far, there has been 72 illnesses and 16 deaths reported as a result of this outbreak. Officials say that even though these cantaloupes have been recalled and are no longer being sold, the count of deaths from this outbreak could keep increasing. The reason for that being is because you could get contaminated with listeria but not show symptoms until weeks later. Many of these deaths have been in older people. Listeria usually kills the elderly, pregnant women, and those with weak immune symptoms while giving most healthy adults no ill effects. FDA said these contaminated cantaloupes were shipped from Jenson farms from July 29^th through September 10^th to many different states. The FDA is not saying how this contamination happened. They are still investigating.

Coming from a family that loves to eat cantaloupe, this is just very shocking because cantaloupe is one of the last things you would expect to be killing people. I would really like to know how the contamination even started, where they went wrong. Also, if they were grown on a farm that sells other things, wouldn’t there be a high chance that everything else or some other things grown on that farm are contaminated as well? It’s very disturbing knowing that so many people are dying from eating cantaloupes right now.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/09/28/ap/health/main20113075.shtml?tag=re1.channel