Thread: IL-City health department names restaurant tied to tainted t

City health department names restaurant tied to tainted tomatoes

By Mike Hughlett | Tribune reporter
3:51 PM CDT, June 18, 2008

A cluster of nine salmonella cases linked to tainted tomatoes occured at the Adobo Grill's two restaurants on Chicago's North Side, the Chicago Department of Public Health said Wednesday.

But it's still unclear whether that cluster is the same one that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is focusing on in its investigation of a salmonella outbreak that has sickened at least 227 people nationwide since mid-April.

The outbreak has been widespread, affecting people who've frequented a variety of restaurants and who bought tomatoes at myriad grocery stores. Nine of the 17 cases reported in Chicago involved people who ate at the Adobo Grill's outlets in Old Town and Wicker Park.

Paul LoDuca, President of DaVinci Group, Ltd., the management company that operates the Adobo Grill restaurant at 2005 W. Division St., said Wednesday that the restaurant was the "unknowing victim" of tomatoes contaminated with salmonella.

Related links
Government tracks 383 tomato salmonella cases
Helpful source: USDA food and nutrition
Tracking the bug in tomatoes

"When purchasing produce for use at the restaurant, there is no way to know whether it may harbor salmonella bacteria," he said in a statement.

The FDA still hasn't been able to track down the origin of the bug, though it believes Mexico or Florida are the most likely sources.

David Acheson, the FDA's assistant commissioner for food protection, said this week that nine cases in the same geographic location is the agency's best tip so far in its hunt for the bug's source. With a cluster of cases from one origin, the FDA hopes to track tainted tomatoes through the supply chain.

Acheson has declined to comment on the location of the cluster. Tim Hadac, a spokesman for the Chicago Department of Public Health, said his agency assumes the FDA is talking about Chicago in reference to the nine cases.

"It looks like they are talking about the same thing," he said.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ ... 4810.story

Lou Dobbs show tonight had his poll question: Do you think the FDA knows where the contaminated tomatoes came from? I'd bet big money on Mexico. That wonderful clean germ free country that Bush wants to join with our country (North American Union). This stuff will be rampant if we become the North American Union. Ugggh!

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www.campaignforliberty.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjauAv6I-E8

We have two cases in our area. One is a 2 year old Waukegan boy. BUT they haven't released any news as to where he ate. Frustrating...


Lake County salmonella cases linked to tomatoes

June 11, 2008
Recommend (1)

By JIM NEWTON jnewton@scn1.com

Two Lake County residents have contracted salmonella genetically linked to a national outbreak believed to have originated from tomatoes.

Tests revealed that a boy from Waukegan and a woman from Ingleside have the strain of salmonella that has sickened at least 167 people across the nation, according to Bill Mays, director of community health services for the Lake County Health Department.


A microbiologist holds a bag of tomatoes being tested for salmonella bacteria at the FDA's research lab, in Irvine, Calif. Two Lake County residents have contracted salmonella linked to a national outbreak.
(AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)

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• Businesses pull tomatoes

Mays said the status of the patients was not available Wednesday afternoon.

The Health Department issued a fax broadcast alert to restaurants in Lake County making them aware of the cases.

Many local fast food chains and other restaurants have stopped serving sliced tomatoes as a result of the outbreak, Mays said.

Symptoms of salmonella include fever, diarrhea that can be bloody, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. In rare cases, more serious systematic symptoms can result.

Anyone who believes they may have salmonella should contact their primary physician or a health clinic, Mays said.

The Centers for Disease Control has said that since mid-April, 167 people in 17 states have been infected with salmonella with the same "genetic fingerprint." At least 23 people have been hospitalized.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials said Wednesday that the agency hopes to identify the source of the nationwide salmonella outbreak linked to tomatoes in the next few days.

Officials said it is safe for consumers to eat tomatoes grown in states such as Florida and California that investigators have determined are not responsible for the outbreak. Health officials say there have been no confirmed deaths linked to the outbreak, which is linked to three types of raw tomatoes.

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/news ... s1.article

CDC counts 383 salmonella cases from tomatoes
By LAURAN NEERGAARD | AP Medical Writer
6:18 PM CDT, June 18, 2008

WASHINGTON - Federal health officials have learned of 106 more cases of salmonella linked to tainted tomatoes, putting the outbreak's toll at 383 on Wednesday and counting.

"We do not think the outbreak is over," said Dr. Robert Tauxe of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Most of this newest influx of cases were people who got sick weeks ago but hadn't been counted yet. Some states began doing a better job of checking for salmonella as the outbreak has dragged on, while part of the surge comes from test results that had been backlogged in jammed laboratories.

What hasn't changed is that the earliest known victim got sick on April 10, and the latest on June 5.

But New Hampshire and Pennsylvania reported their first cases, bringing to 30 the number of states -- plus Washington, D.C. -- that have reported sick residents, although some may have been infected while traveling. At least 48 people have been hospitalized.

It might be impossible to trace the ultimate source of the tainted tomatoes, the Food and Drug Administration's food safety chief warned Wednesday.

"I know there is a great deal of frustration" that the mystery hasn't been solved, said Dr. David Acheson, the FDA's associate commissioner for foods. "We're continuing to work flat-out."

But tomatoes are among the hardest foods to trace in an outbreak, because people seldom have any left by the time they get sick and they're sold without tags to help trace their suppliers.

The FDA has said that parts of Mexico and Florida are the most likely sources of the contamination because they were supplying most of the nation's tomatoes when the outbreak began. But Acheson said he was "trying to inject a note of realism" that the longer his probe lasts, the less likely he'll find the actual farm.

"As every day passes, it gets just a little more tricky," he said. "I'm still optimistic but I'm trying to be realistic."

As part of the probe, the FDA has asked Mexican health authorities to check whether they have any cases of this exact strain of salmonella Saintpaul, the subtype involved.

The FDA continues to urge consumers nationwide to avoid raw red plum, red Roma or red round tomatoes unless they were grown in specific states or countries that FDA has cleared of suspicion. Check FDA's Web site -- http://www.fda.gov -- for an updated list. Also safe are grape tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and tomatoes sold with the vine still attached.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ ... 9069.story

I BELIEVE THEY KNOW WHERE THOSE TOMATOES CAME FROM....THEY JUST DONT WANT TO SAY IT.

YOU GO TO THE RESTAURANT OR STORE WHERE THE SICK PEOPLE ATE. YOU ASK THAT RESTAURANT OR STORE WHERE THEY GET THEIR TOMATOES. YOU GO TO THE SOURCES....OR SOURCES IF THERE IS MORE THAN ONE SOURCE.

EVERYONE GOT SICK AT BASICALLY THE SAME TIME. SO YOU LOOK AT THE SOURCES FROM ALL OF THE PLACES WHERE SICKENED PEOPLE GOT OR ATE THEIR TOMATOES. THERE WILL BE A COMMON THREAD THERE.

OF COURSE THE SOURCE IS GOING TO SAY IT IS NOT THEM. IT IS HARD TO ACTUALLY PROVE SINCE THE TOMATOES HAVE ALL BEEN DISTRIBUTED AND EATEN. NEW TOMATOES AT THE SAME SOURCE MIGHT NOT BE INFECTED.

ALSO THEY SHOULD CHECK WHO TRANSPORTED THE TOMATOES. THERE MIGHT BE A COMMON THREAD THERE. THEY HAVE HAD MONTHS TO DO THIS.

Lou Dobbs was saying that the same type of salmonella is now in Mexico, and he was wondering why we do not send people from the United States to check and test tomato growers in that country.

Romans 5:8

the FDA better hurry up and Ketchup on this thing

LOL@"KETCHUP ON THIS THING"

THATS FUNNY JIMPASZ!!!