Thursday, June 5, 2008
Rare tuberculosis cases linked to Mexican cheese
Health officials in Orange County report no cases, but in San Diego, 'bathtub cheese' is sickening people in Latino community.
By DOUG IRVING
The Orange County Register

Researchers have found a potentially deadly strain of tuberculosis infection spreading through Latino communities in Southern California and suspect the disease is being imported from Mexico in unpasteurized cheese.

Health officials in Orange County, though, say they have not seen any cases of the rare strain of tuberculosis in at least five years. They credit a long-running campaign to educate people about the dangers of eating unlabeled cheese and other dairy products.

Tuberculosis is an infection of the lungs that kills nearly 2 million people worldwide every year. The strain of tuberculosis that researchers found in San Diego County is more often linked to cattle, but can spread to people through raw dairy products.

That particular strain remains rare, even in San Diego County, the researchers concluded. But more than 90 percent of the people who were sickened by it were Latino, mostly from Mexico.

The researchers from the University of California, San Diego, pointed to a kind of cheese known as queso fresco, or fresh cheese, as the likely culprit. The soft, crumbly cheese is especially popular in Latino communities.

All dairy products sold in the United States are required to be pasteurized, which kills tuberculosis and other diseases. But, the researchers noted, unpasteurized dairy products are common just across the border, in Baja Mexico.
An earlier study also linked cases of the rare tuberculosis strain – known as M. Bovis – in New York City to unpasteurized cheese from Mexico.

Orange County's health-care agency has received no reports of that kind of tuberculosis in years, said Richard Sanchez, the director of the county's Environmental Health Division. The county also hasn't fielded any recent complaints about markets or vendors selling illegal cheese, he said.

That may be due to an earlier outbreak linked to bad cheese in Orange County. Several years ago, cases of Listeria were traced back to the same kind of illegal, home-made cheese that's sometimes called "bathtub cheese."

Listeria infections are especially dangerous for pregnant women; the disease can kill babies in the womb. The outbreak in Orange County prompted an aggressive campaign to warn people not to eat unpasteurized cheese or other dairy products. "We hope that had some impact," Sanchez said.

The advice then is the same as the advice now, Sanchez said: Look for a label. Make sure you know where your food came from. Buy cheese and other dairy products from a market or store.

And, he said, call the county's Health Agency at 714-433-6000 if you see someone selling suspect cheese.

Contact the writer: 714-704-3777 or dirving@ocregister.com





http://www.ocregister.com/articles/chee ... ucts-dairy