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

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

WASHINGTON - More than 1,000 people now are confirmed ill from salmonella initially linked to raw tomatoes, a sobering milestone Wednesday that makes this the worst foodborne outbreak in at least a decade. Adding to the confusion, the US government is warning certain people to avoid types of hot peppers, too.

A dish showing minimal growth of Salmonella (L) and a dish containing the sugar arabinose showing enhanced growth of Salmonella is seen in this handout photo released to Reuters on July 7, 2008. A new type of vaccine that sneaks into the body and then self-destructs -all without needles -may offer a new way to protect against a range of diseases, US researchers reported on Monday. [Agencies]

Certain raw tomatoes - red round, plum and Roma - remain a chief suspect, and the government stressed again Wednesday that all consumers should avoid them unless they were harvested in areas cleared of suspicion.

People at highest risk of severe illness from salmonella also should not eat raw jalapeno and serrano peppers, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged Wednesday. The most vulnerable are the elderly, people with weak immune systems and infants.

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Raw jalapenos caused some of the illnesses, concluded CDC investigations of two clusters of sick people who ate at the same restaurant or catered event.

Jalapenos cannot be the sole culprit, however; many of the ill insist they did not eat hot peppers or foods like salsa that contain them, CDC food safety chief Dr. Robert Tauxe told The Associated Press. As for serrano peppers, that was included in the warning because they're difficult for consumers to tell apart.

In some clusters of illnesses, jalapenos "simply were not on the menu," Tauxe said. "We are quite sure that neither tomatoes nor jalapenos explain the entire outbreak at this point. ... We're presuming that both of them have caused illness."

That has Food and Drug Administration inspectors looking hard for farms that may have grown tomatoes in the past three or four months and then switched to pepper harvesting, or for distribution centers that handled both types of produce.

Also still being investigated is fresh cilantro, because a significant number of people who got sick most recently say they ate all three - raw tomatoes, jalapenos and cilantro.

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