Deadly US cantaloupe listeria outbreak over - CDC
The worst foodborne contamination is modern US history has ended, leaving 30 dead and over 100 infected, health officials have announced.
In a final update on the outbreak – the first since the beginning of November - the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that available evidence indicates that the cantaloupe-related listeria outbreak is over.
The contamination, which was traced back to whole cantaloupes from Colorado-based Jensen Farms, infected a total of 146 people with any of the four outbreak-associated strains of Listeria monocytogenes – 30 of which died.
One woman, pregnant at the time of illness, also had a miscarriage.
The outbreak is the worst in the US since 1924.
Among the 140 infected persons with available information on what they ate, 131 (94%) reported eating cantaloupe in the month before illness set in.