The Food and Drug Administration has posted an increase in the number of patients in an outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes infections as it continues investigations into three other outbreaks.
The new patient count in the Listeria outbreak is 16, up from 14 reported a week ago. As of March 16 the FDA had not determined the cause of the outbreak. The agency has initiated traceback efforts, but has not revealed what food or foods are involved in those activities.
The FDA has not revealed any demographic information on the Listeria patients and has not reported where they live.
In other outbreak news the FDA is investigating a new outbreak of Salmonella SaintPaul infections that has sickened 59 people. The agency announced the outbreak on March 16. As with the Listeria outbreak investigation, the FDA has not released any patient information for the Salmonella outbreak and has not reported where the patients live. Traceback efforts have begun, according to the FDA, but the agency did not report what food or foods are involved.
The other two ongoing outbreaks, as previously reported by Food Safety News, and their investigation status are reflected in the below table.
The table shows information about outbreak investigations being managed by FDA’s CORE Response Teams. The investigations are in a variety of stages. Some outbreaks have limited information with active investigations ongoing, others may be near completion. The table below has been abbreviated to show only active investigations.
The Food and Drug Administration will issue public health advisories for outbreak investigations that result in “specific, actionable steps for consumers — such as throwing out or avoiding specific foods — to take to protect themselves,” according to the outbreak table page.
Not all recalls and alerts result in an outbreak of foodborne illness. Not all outbreaks result in recalls.
Outbreak investigations that do not result in specific, actionable steps for consumers may or may not conclusively identify a source or reveal any contributing factors, according to CORE’s outbreak table page. If a source(s) and/or contributing factors are identified that could inform future prevention, FDA commits to providing a summary of those findings, according to CORE officials.
Click here to visit the FDA page that has a complete list of outbreak investigations and links to outbreak information.
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