Lettuce the Likely Culprit in New Hepatitis A Cases (Mexifornia lettuce!)

LA Times ^ | 12/2/05 | Rong-Gong Lin II, Times Staff Writer

[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.

[SuziQ]

I don't even trust the 'pre-washed' label on salads, etc. I ALWAYS wash it!

[kitkat]

and would you be kind enough to tell me how much Clorox you put in the rinse water?

[Dashing Dasher]

Thanks, Doc.

[tiki]

If someone used infected human waste as fertilizer it would be present in the soil and rain or even wind could blow it up into the lettuce.

[1rudeboy]

My mistake. I was thinking of something else. Now I'm wondering what it is.

[Becker32]

Realistically, you are wrong on many levels. Hepatitis A is not a bacteria, it a virus. There is a difference.

Secondly, many people have had Hepatitis A and are completely unaware. It doesn't matter the state of ones immune system.

[Trust but Verify]

The article says it might be helpful to use a brush when you wash the lettuce. Good grief, I'm not about to start washing lettuce leaf-by-leaf because a handful of people got sick. We would all be Bubble-Boys if we succumbed to each and every one of these health scares!

[SF Republican]

I thought fetilizer went into the plant not on to it.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Guess I'll have to pass up on the salad & have a BLT for lunch instead.

The "L" in BLT stands for Lettuce!

[AxelPaulsenJr]

I suspect that the water used to irrigate these Mexican crops is not the best.

[hispanarepublicana]

I suspect that the water used to irrigate these Mexican crops is not the best.

It's, ahem, "recycled".

[Jigsaw John]

I remember that.

>>Three people have died and more than 500 have been sickened by an outbreak of hepatitis A linked to a Chi-Chi’ s restaurant in Beaver County, Pennsylvania.

[NY Attitude]

Or the lack of appropriate toilet facilities and of course the water necessary to wash their hands afterward.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

I think most of the bactera/viruses, etc. are on the outside of the veggies. The general rule is to be especially careful with things like celery, onions, lettuce etc. because they grow close to the ground (where the fertilzer is) and it's harder to keep sand, grit and bad fertilizer out of the veggies.

Seems to me that if the E Coli is in the ground around the veggies, the E Coli could get "percolated" up into the veggies through their water intake. Lettuce, cucumbers, celery etc. are a LOT of water.

[hispanarepublicana]

Fertilizer goes on the soil. It's normally applied before planting, and then during the season once or twice. Here in the U.S., there is no human waste used for fertilizing, with the exception of a field worker who doesn't want to trot (no pun) to the port-o-potty at the end of the row.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

I think I'll stick with my home grown stuff (lettuce, that is).

I'm with ya..... and I'm gonna lay off the store-bought and restaurant-provided lettuce from now until next growing season!

[martin_fierro]

IIRC, those PGH events caused Chi-Chis to go belly-up nationwide.

[hispanarepublicana]

It doesn't "percolate" up into the plant. If that were the case, we'd be dead long ago from the chicken manure that is often used to fertilize.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Fertilizer goes "on" the soil, but the rainwater dilutes it and takes it down INTO the soil, where it is absorbed by the plant through the roots. That's the whole concept of using fertilizer in the first place. It's not for the benefit of the dirt - it's to be absorbed by the plants.

[AxelPaulsenJr]

I remember a 60 minutes story from several years ago concerning the water in the river that runs out of Baja California into the U.S. A study of that water found just about every deadly disease known to man.