Physical Wellness

Dole Listeria Outbreak In Salads Kills One, Hospitalises 12

By R. Siva Kumar | Update Date: Jan 25, 2016 09:37 AM EST

Do you think that a salad can be a slammer?

Well, one person from Michigan is dead, while 12 from various states have been hospitalized due to a multi-state Listeria outbreak related to salads packaged from a Dole processing facility in Springfield, Ohio, says CBS News  reported.

Listeria, or listeriosis, indicates serious food poisoning, leading to "a headache, loss of balance, confusion, stiff neck, and convulsions," sometimes even death. The people who are most sensitive to it include pregnant women, infants, older adults and people with weakened immune systems, reports the CDC.

The outbreak was being probed since September 2015. Still, it has infected a number of people, including one pregnant woman. The others are from six states: four in Michigan, four in New York, one in Indiana, one in New Jersey, one in Massachusetts and one in Pennsylvania, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Researchers found that the Listeria isolates gathered from the 12 hospitalized patients were genetically related.

The source of the outbreak was traced to the Dole Springfield facility. The Ohio Department of Agriculture isolated Listeria from the pack of Dole brand Field Greens. They were related to the earlier isolates that had been collected from the 12 patients.

By stopping the production at the facility on Thursday, Dole has removed the packaged salads from the market.

They were all sold under various brands apart from Dole, including "President's Choice, Simple Truth, The Little Salad Bar, Marketside and Fresh Selections". The manufacturing code on the packages starts with "A," according to the CDC, in an advisory.

However, there is no cause for believing that other Dole facility salads are infected. Anyone who has bought the facility can just throw it out and wash the spot on which it was parked.

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