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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- More than 380 people in 26 U.S. states have been diagnosed with a stomach illness tied to Mexican cilantro contaminated by human waste, two federal agencies said Tuesday. It's the fourth consecutive summer in which the intestinal infection cyclosporiasis has been reported in the United States. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration are investigating the cause of the latest outbreak, which appears to have begun after May 1. The FDA said it suspects the contamination came from "contact with the parasite shed from the intestinal tract of humans" in...

Green onions suspected of sickening Taco Bell customers in six states have been traced to one of Ventura County's largest vegetable growers, but authorities said Thursday it was too early to blame anyone for the outbreak. Taco Bell Corp. voluntarily removed green onions from its restaurants Wednesday after discovering that the "vast majority" of at least 58 people who suffered E. coli food poisoning in the last week, mostly in New Jersey and New York, had eaten at a Taco Bell, federal officials said Thursday. No one has died, but 48 people have been hospitalized with kidney failure or other...

MEXICALI, Mexico -- U.S. inspectors are in Mexico to visit onion exporters following a hepatitis A outbreak in Pennsylvania that killed three people and sickened more than 600 others. A Food and Drug Administration official said the inspectors are checking to see if conditions are up to U.S. standards. Contaminated green onions from Mexico are blamed for the outbreak among people who ate at a suburban Pittsburgh Chi-Chi's restaurant, as well as smaller outbreaks in Tennessee and Georgia. The official said inspectors want to make sure that no more contaminated food is being shipped. Mexico has shut down four green...

What we owe to NAFTA Posted: December 1, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc. Around Oct. 6, 38-year-old auto mechanic Jeff Cook decided to treat his wife and two daughters to dinner at Chi-Chi's in Beaver Valley Mall outside Pittsburgh. Within three weeks, Cook, suffering from acute liver failure, was fighting for his life. To save him, surgeons had a new liver flown in. They failed. Jeff Cook became, writes Lydia Polgreen of the New York Times, "the first person to die in what federal health officials say is the biggest food-borne outbreak of hepatitis A in...

Allegheny County health officials said Tuesday they will conduct genetic tests to determine if two new hepatitis A patients contracted the same virus that killed three and sickened more than 600 patrons and workers at a Beaver County restaurant. The Allegheny County Health Department wants to find out if the two patients are the outbreak's first secondary cases, department spokesman Guillermo Cole said. Officials have confirmed that at least 615 people contracted hepatitis A from green onions served in mild salsa and chili con queso at the Chi-Chi's Mexican Restaurant in Beaver Valley Mall. The outbreak is one of the...

ATLANTA -- A North Carolina outbreak of hepatitis A probably came from green onions, which also have been blamed for outbreaks linked to restaurants in Georgia, Tennessee and Pennsylvania, according to a preliminary state health report. The Georgia Division of Public Health found that the hepatitis A strain that sickened 16 people in North Carolina was the same as the one that afflicted 259 people in Georgia and likely came from the same source. The Georgia outbreak had previously been traced to green onions shipped from Mexico, and the report said a single Atlanta Farmers' Market distributor provided green onions...

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...