Posted on 09/27/2011 9:43:56 PM PDT by Rabin
At least 13 people are dead amid 72 sickened in 18 states in an outbreak of listeria food poisoning tied to contaminated cantaloupes, federal health officials said Tuesday.
The latest confirmed as of Monday morning, according to Centers for Disease Control. But they may well rise in the still-widening outbreak that now ranks as the deadliest in the United States in more than a decade.
Listeria is a common bacterium that typically causes mild illness in healthy people, but can cause severe illness in older people and those with compromised immune systems. It also can cause miscarriages and stillbirths in pregnant women and severe infections in new babies. Listeria infections lead to about 1,600 serious illnesses each year and about 260 people die, according to the CDC.
(Excerpt) Read more at today.msnbc.msn.com ...
FOX just reported 18 deaths linked to the contaminated cantaloupes.
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