Concord, NH – The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) announces it has identified another case of Salmonella Saintpaul related to the national outbreak, bringing the total cases in New Hampshire to five. The cases are dispersed across the State, and range in age from 1 – 59. No one has been hospitalized and there have been no deaths in the State related to this outbreak.
There are now 1,196 cases confirmed of Salmonella saintpaul in 42 states, the District of Columbia and Canada. Earlier this month the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expanded their investigation to include foods other than tomatoes.
"This has been an incredibly difficult investigation for federal health officials, as it is difficult to trace back exactly what people ate," said DHHS Director of Public Health Services Dr. Jose Montero. "Until a cause is pinpointed, we are asking people to follow recommendations from federal health officials regarding the specific foods that are safe to eat, and those you should stay away from."
With no clear indication of what is causing the illnesses people with increased risk of severe infection, including infants, the elderly, and those with impaired immune systems, are being advised to not eat raw jalapeno peppers or raw serrano peppers. They should also only eat raw tomatoes that are on the FDA safe list found at: www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/tomatoes.html. Other people who are concerned and want to reduce their risk of Salmonella infection should take similar precautions. The FDA is advising people to limit tomato consumption to cherry tomatoes; grape tomatoes; tomatoes sold with the vine still attached; tomatoes grown at home; and red plum, red Roma, and round red tomatoes from the safe list.
For information on safe food handling, refer to the FDA website www.cfsan.fda.gov/list.html or the U.S. Department of Agriculture at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/. For more information about this outbreak, refer to the DHHS website at www.dhhs.nh.gov, the FDA website at www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/tomatqa.html, or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website at www.cdc.gov/salmonella/saintpaul/. For questions about tomato safety or salmonella, please call the NH DHHS Communicable Disease Control Section at 1-603-271-4496 or 1-800-852-3345 x4496.
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