U.S. experts track two suspected spinach deaths

[stu]

By Shea Andersen

Fri Sep 22, 5:19 PM ET

 

 

 

BOISE, Idaho (Reuters) - A 2-year-old boy in Idaho and an 86-year-old woman in Maryland who both died from suspected E. coli infections raised to three the number of deaths from an outbreak traced to fresh spinach, state health officials said on Friday.

 

And Maryland state health officials said three more children who became ill earlier this month appear to have been infected with the dangerous strain.

 

Federal and state officials were inspecting nine farms in California's Salinas Valley, where the outbreak of E. coli 0157:H7 is suspected to have originated, while growers pledged to help find and plug safety gaps and Democratic politicians questioned the government's oversight of food safety.

 

Americans have been cautioned not to eat fresh spinach until the source of the outbreak has been traced. At least 157 people in 23 states have been affected, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

 

More than 80 have been hospitalized.

 

Two-year-old Kyle Allgood, of Chubbuck, Idaho died on Wednesday at a hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah, said Ross Mason, a spokesman for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.

 

June Dunning, 86, of Washington County in Maryland died September 13, family members told the Herald-Mail newspaper. A county health official confirmed the newspaper report.

 

In both cases, family members said the victims had recently eaten fresh spinach. Health officials have been only able to trace the dangerous strain of E. coli 0157:H7 to a single bag of fresh spinach from the home of a victim in New Mexico, but are presuming any other cases are part of the same outbreak if the victim recently ate spinach.

 

The child died of hemolytic uremic syndrome, a sudden kidney failure that has been associated with E. coli infection, Mason said.

 

Children under 5 and the elderly are most susceptible to consequences of diarrhea and dehydration -- hallmarks of E. coli 0157:H7, a strain of the gut bacteria that infects 73,000 people and kills 61 in the United States each year.

 

The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said it had discovered three more illnesses linked to the outbreak. "The cases involve children, each of whom consumed the spinach before the national alert was issued in mid-September," it said in a statement.

 

HARVESTING HALTED

 

Farmers have stopped harvesting their spinach crops and supermarkets are no longer selling the vegetable as investigators seek the source of the problem.

 

The Produce Marketing Association, the largest group representing companies along supply chains for fruits, vegetables and flowers, estimates farmers and food processors may lose up to $100 million a month if consumers stop eating spinach.

 

"The industry is moving with all due deliberation but also with a sense of urgency," said Tim Chelling, spokesman for the Western Growers Association.

 

"Obviously there was a breakdown in the system somewhere," added Dave Kranz, spokesman for the California Farm Bureau Federation, the state's largest farm organization.

 

"Now we need to find out if the system was flawed ... or if it was a breakdown that can be corrected. All those questions are still to be resolved."

 

At least two Democratic Congressmen raised questions about farm and food safety regulation.

 

"Quick action is needed at the federal level. Today, we have 12 different federal agencies stumbling over each other to ensure the safety of our food supply," Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin told a news conference held with consumer and food safety advocates.

 

"I am concerned that FDA has not conducted adequate inspections of the plants that process spinach and other produce," California Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman (news, bio, voting record) wrote in a letter to the FDA.

 

(Additional reporting by Jim Christie and Adam Tanner in San Francisco, Mike Conlon in Chicago, Matthew Bigg in Atlanta and Maggie Fox in Washington)