Atlanta - A food-borne disease possibly linked to contaminated meat has made at least 40 people sick in 10 states and killed four of them, federal officials said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the outbreak of listeriosis, an illness caused by the bacterium Listeria, has affected 13 people in Ohio and 12 in New York.
Cases were also reported in Tennessee, Massachusetts, West Virginia, Michigan, Connecticut, Oregon, Vermont and Georgia. The outbreak has been linked to a single rare strain of Listeria.
The illness has killed four people since early August. The figures released Wednesday were contained in the agency's first formal report on the outbreak although the CDC had previously confirmed 35 cases and four deaths.
The outbreak led Bil Mar Foods, a division of Sara Lee Corp. (NYSE:SLE - news), to announce Tuesday that as a precaution it was voluntarily recalling specific production lots of hot dogs and other meat products that could contain Listeria bacteria.
“They have elected, even before we have completed all of our investigations and done all the laboratory work, to voluntarily recall the product so that they can help assure no one else would become ill,” said Dr. Stephen Ostroff of the CDC's National Center for Infectious Diseases.
The hot dogs were produced at the company's plant in Zeeland, Michigan, and sold through food-service channels and retail grocery stores in the United States.
The CDC said Listeria is a bacterium found in soil and water which can contaminate foods of animal origin such as meats and dairy products. The health agency said about 1,850 persons become seriously ill with listeriosis each year and 425 of them die.
Listeriosis can cause fever, muscle aches, nausea and diarrhea. If the infection spreads to the nervous system, it can cause headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance, convulsions and meningitis, health officials said.
“The severity of illness related to Listeria and the proportion of cases that we find that actually end up with severe consequences and deaths is amongst the highest of all of the food-borne pathogens,” Ostroff said.
Listeriosis affects primarily the elderly, pregnant women, newborns and adults with weakened immune systems.
Researchers said they recently isolated the rare strain of Listeria from an opened package of hot dogs eaten by one of the people who became ill.
The CDC said listeriosis and other food-borne illnesses can be prevented by cooking thoroughly raw food from animal sources and washing raw vegetables thoroughly before eating.
Meat Industry Insights News Service
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