US cantaloupe listeria outbreak worst in modern history
According to the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), another person has died as a result of the tainted fruit, taking the total to 29 – equalling a 1985 listeriosis outbreak.
The 1985 outbreak, which was linked to listeria-contaminated Mexican-style soft cheeses, killed 29 people in south California.
CDC computerised outbreak records only go back as far as 1973, and less formally back to 1967.
The deadliest documented US foodborne outbreak was in 1924, when a typhoid outbreak related to raw oysters killed around 150 people in New York City.
A further 139 people have become infected with any of the four outbreak-associated strains and a woman pregnant at the time of illness has a miscarriage.
The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) recently released the results of their investigation into the outbreak, which they were able to attribute to packaging machinery at a Jensen Farms plant in Colorado.
