Posted on 12/02/2005 11:10:55 AM PST by BurbankKarl
Health officials on Thursday identified lettuce as the likely source for a hepatitis A outbreak in Los Angeles County and urged residents to thoroughly wash the vegetable before eating it.
At least 60 people have fallen ill from the virus in Los Angeles County over the last three months. Officials are concerned because the outbreak comes after years of declining hepatitis A cases, but they have been unable to link the outbreak to a particular farm or type of lettuce.
There were at least two outbreaks: one in a downtown Los Angeles restaurant in September that affected 13; the other at an event catered by a Hollywood company in October where 19 fell ill. The other cases were scattered.
Officials would not identify the specific locations of the outbreaks, saying there is no ongoing risk at those sites.
"We believe lettuce was the problem in these events," said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, public health director for Los Angeles County.
"This is a problem that deserves real attention, and people eating in a restaurant should ask if the produce is being cleaned carefully."
Fielding added that consumers should wash even salads that are packaged and labeled as washed. Packaged lettuce has been linked to E. coli outbreaks, including a case this fall involving salads packaged by a division of Westlake Village-based Dole Food Co. in Salinas, Calif. The salads sickened more than a dozen people in Minnesota.
Officials had initially observed an increase in hepatitis A in homeless patients in the downtown Los Angeles area, although those numbers are dropping, said Dr. Laurene Mascola, director of the county's acute communicable disease control unit.
The county has observed declining hepatitis A rates since 1999, when health officials began advising that children be vaccinated against the disease.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
The thing is, it isn't legal to use illegal aliens for labor either, if your willing to break one law you are willing to break another. I find it interesting this is happening in CA, southern CA at that, where there are the more illegals per square foot then in the rest of the US.
You got it. One big heaping plate of bacon for you!!
ANY of the vegetables you eat should be carefully washed. Because it's a common practice to use human waste for fertilizer south of the border, the workers see nothing wrong with doing it HERE. That goes for other states that use illegal immigrants for labor, not just CA. In addition to hepatitis A and B, you have to worry about the various forms of e-coli. We use a little clorox in our water when we rinse our veggies. We've heard of these diseases occuring not only in lettuce, but in green onions, cilantro, and parsley, but it could occur in any veggies.
Wow. Not a word about halting imports from the source in order to protect the public.
Such effective health officials we have. Perhaps they have earned the title, "health offals," instead.
What's allowed, and what's done, are two different things.
Didn't know this. Yikes!
You rinse off the Clorox I hope! Do you zap everything in the microwave too?
That's how it works. If a farm laborer is a half-mile out in the field and has to go to the bathroom, they just go.
We all know a drink is good bad good bad good bad something for you!
Maybe they understand the nature of Hep A, and you do not?
Spent one week in Mexico.....Spent 6 weeks recovering.
No microwave, but yes, we double rinse the veggies, once in the clorox water and once in clear water.
It's not the salad, it's the Jesse Jackson dressing ...
I'll bet ya lost a few pounds in the process, though!
Spent one week in Mexico.....Spent 6 weeks recovering
What happens in Mexico, stays well, in you.
Not just fertilzer per se, but by infected workers defecating in the fields.
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