U.S. Bars Mexican Onions Due to Hepatitis A Outbreak

Reuters ^ | 11-19-03

[asmith92008]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has halted imports of Mexican green onions suspected of causing an outbreak of hepatitis A that has sickened more than 500 people in Pennsylvania, a Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) official told Reuters on Wednesday.

FDA Deputy Commissioner Lester Crawford said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control on Friday will release an update on the outbreak, including the food source that has caused at least three deaths and where it originated.

Health officials believe Mexican green onions served at a Chi-Chi's restaurant were the source of the Pennsylvania outbreak. Recent cases of the liver disease in Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia have also been linked to scallions.

"We are actually detaining the (green onions) at the border at the present time," Crawford said after testifying on an unrelated issue at the House Governmental Affairs committee. "This is the best bet of the source, but has not yet been finally confirmed."

Crawford said there were no indications the hepatitis A outbreak was intentional.

Hepatitis A is usually mild but can cause fever, exhaustion, vomiting, abdominal pain and in rare cases death.

As of Tuesday, 520 cases of the illness had been confirmed in Pennsylvania, the state health department said on its Web site.

The Chi-Chi's Mexican restaurant chain voluntarily pulled green onions off the menu at all its more than 100 restaurants after employees and patrons of Beaver Valley, Pennsylvania, restaurant became ill from hepatitis A.

The chain is owned by Irvine, California-based Prandium Inc..

[Dane]

Who are you and why are you hijacking Dane's account?

I know you're not him because the posts on this thread are informative, well mannered and interesting

LOL!

[teeman8r]

my big screen sony is now going on it's fifteenth year... we are looking to invest in another big screen only because of the need for a hd digital format...

teeman

[FITZ]

In Mexico they use human sewage to irrigate and fertilize the crops. Anyone who has ever traveled to Mexico knows the warnings --- you don't drink the water, you don't eat any uncooked food --- it's common knowledge and there is no reason the importers of this food wouldn't know the risks.

[FITZ]

Are you implying that you’d rather eat food that had raw human feces on it than something that was chemically fertilized?

The problem with eating poop from Mexico is that they have a lot of hepatitis A, pathogenic E. coli, salmonella, shigella, cholera and other diseases in that poop. If the human sewage used to fertilize doesn't contain a lot of diseases --- I guess it'd be safer to eat.

[Dante3]

Questions have been raised if this was done deliberately such as in the 1980s in a community in Oregon (or was it Washington) case. A Hindu cult infected salad bars in restaurants to get people sick on election day so that their candiates could win. Initially our government allegedly hid this from us.

[Admin Moderator]

Post source link and original headline please.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Statement: "We ship out jobs, they ship in hepatitis"

Response. Simply fill your heart with love. That is more important than disease and death.

[Prodigal Son]

600 people is not a devastating outbreak.

[asmith92008]

Aemilius,
Somehow filling I doubt that filling my heart with love will keep me safe from tainted food.

[asmith92008]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20031120/us_nm/food_hepatitis_dc_5

U.S. Bars Mexican Onions Due to Hepatitis A Outbreak

[asmith92008]

Prodigal Son,
What are your requirements for a devestating plague? I think that six hundred people and counting suffering from a debilitating virus is pretty bad. So what does it take for you?

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Well we are told "True Luv conquers all!" "Our Diversity Is Our Strength!" We are to create "A Big Tent," and "Room At The Table!" No, I'm sorry, I'll take "Diversity" over disease and death anytime. I mean what is TB, Hepatitis,Dengue Fever, Malaria, Ebola, Flesh Eating Bacteria etc. when compared to the sight and smell of an elevator filled with the "Diverse Ones?"

[asmith92008]

Thank goodness, Aemelius. I thought from your first post that you were serious.

You should also remember a bit of wisdom from Jack Handy: "My father said that laughter was the best medicine. Maybe that's why my six brothers died of TB."