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The strain of E. coli bacteria contaminating romaine lettuce and linked to the deaths of five people was found in a contaminated irrigation canal in Arizona, federal officials announced on Thursday
. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, three months after the first recorded diseases, channel water samples in the Yuma region of Arizona contained the same genetic strain of E. coli. coli that caused the hatching. Scott Gottlieb, Commissioner of the Federal Food and Drug Administration, said in a statement
When eight inmates in a prison in Alaska were sick, the FDA investigators found the trail of the disease in whole-headed romaine lettuce harvested at Harrison Farms, in the Yuma area. Health officials said that the lettuce that caused the national outbreak was linked to many farms in the region. Representatives of Harrison Farms could not be reached for comment Saturday
Questions remain about how bacteria found themselves in the canal
"There is still work to be done to determine how and why this strain of E. coli O157: H7 could have entered this water plane and how that has led to the contamination of the romaine lettuce of several farms, "said Dr. Gottlieb.
Health authorities took samples of water, soil and manure in the Yuma area. the precise source of the bacteria.
Of the five people who died, two lived in Minnesota, and the others came from Arkansas, California, and New York, according to the CDC. The patients were from 36 states.
It was the largest outbreak of E. coli in more than a decade. More than 200 people became ill and nearly half of them had to be hospitalized.
In 2006, nearly 200 people were infected with infected spinach in 26 states; only one Californian production company was at the center of this epidemic. The most recent contamination was more widespread.
"This is a larger contamination event that has affected many farms and ranches, and then spread into the supply chain," Bill Marler explains. , a lawyer in Seattle. more than 100 people who were sick.
Marler said that many of his clients still had health problems, such as the effects of kidney failure, after eating contaminated lettuce. Many hospitalized people have developed a type of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome, according to CDC representatives
in Arizona who seek to ensure that contaminated water does not affect not next year's harvests, said Teressa Lopez, a spokeswoman for the Arizona Leafy Greens Food Safety Committee, an organization for growers and shippers of green vegetables
L & # 39; The organization expects more information from the FDA, including how the bacteria arrived in the first place and the specific farms were affected.
Ms. Lopez said the potential solutions include looking for a different water source for crops or treating water with chemicals to make sure it is free of bacteria.
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