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from the give-a-crap...one-way-or-another dept.
The US CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) are warning of a serious multi-state E. Coli O157:H7 outbreak that has sickened 32 people, caused 11 hospitalizations, and caused a case of hemolytic uremic syndrome, a type of kidney failure.
CDC is advising consumers, restaurants, and retailers not to eat, serve, or sell any romaine lettuce as it investigates an outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 infections linked to romaine. Read the investigation announcement: https://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/2018/o157h7-11-18/index.html.
[...] Advice to Consumers, Retailers, and Restaurants:
- CDC is advising that U.S. consumers not eat any romaine lettuce, and retailers and restaurants not serve or sell any, until we learn more about the outbreak. This investigation is ongoing and the advice will be updated as more information is available.
- Consumers who have any type of romaine lettuce in their home should not eat it and should throw it away, even if some of it was eaten and no one has gotten sick.
- This advice includes all types or uses of romaine lettuce, such as whole heads of romaine, hearts of romaine, and bags and boxes of precut lettuce and salad mixes that contain romaine, including baby romaine, spring mix, and Caesar salad.
- If you do not know if the lettuce is romaine or whether a salad mix contains romaine, do not eat it and throw it away.
- Restaurants and retailers should not serve or sell any romaine lettuce, including salads and salad mixes containing romaine.
- People with symptoms of an E. coli infection, such as severe stomach cramps, diarrhea (often bloody), and vomiting, and think you might have gotten sick from eating romaine lettuce, should talk to their doctor and report their illness to the health department.
- This investigation is ongoing and CDC will provide more information as it becomes available.
As a precautionary measure, they also advise that if you had any Romaine lettuce, to clean your refrigerator and any surfaces with soapy water and then disinfect with a bleach solution.
They emphasize that it is not possible to sufficiently clean any Romaine lettuce you may have as the bacteria can lodge in micro crevices in the lettuce.
Yes, there are more risky things in one's life to worry about. On the other hand, giving up some salad and avoiding a few days of bleeding diarrhea seems a fair trade-off to me.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by khallow on Friday November 23 2018, @03:08PM (14 children)
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 23 2018, @03:26PM (1 child)
If they don't share the information they already have they would be blamed for not warning earlier. 32 cases are probably enough to pass the statistics that there is something happening, than you can throw outbreak models on them and see how big it could get in 24-48 hours. Also, the area affected is probably also a determinant for how serious this is. If it would only be in a small village, the outbreak would be restricted to that, this is multi-state, so the effect on the area is much larger.
(Score: 3, Informative) by khallow on Friday November 23 2018, @03:36PM
And of course, they have to look like they're doing something, hence the theater.
Here's the thing. The outbreak [cdc.gov] started on October 8 and the last reported case was started on October 31. They don't actually know the source ("Epidemiologic evidence from the United States and Canada indicates that romaine lettuce is a likely source of the outbreak."). Thus, we have this announcement three weeks after the last case reported.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 23 2018, @04:02PM (5 children)
everytime I start thinking about eating more vegetables, this happens; firing up another steak!
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 23 2018, @05:34PM (3 children)
I'm with you, Brother! Let those liberals and feminists eat the salads.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 23 2018, @07:03PM (1 child)
Nothing says "conservative" like domestic violence and bloody diarrhea!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 24 2018, @08:19AM
That, or Newt Gringrinch. Go ahead, mod this redundant! 'Cause it is!!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 23 2018, @07:40PM
Speak for yourself, says this carnivorous liberal.
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Saturday November 24 2018, @11:18AM
If you eat only the flesh of animals that themselves only eat vegetables, does that make you a vegetarian by proxy?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 23 2018, @04:41PM (1 child)
Did you let your family eat any romaine or did you throw it away? Are you willing to take the chance yourself? Are you willing to let others, who you do not know, risk getting sick?
The consolidation of big agriculture means there are very few facilities that process romaine. Should the CDC wait until it has completely tracked down the source of this E. coli outbreak before it issues any warnings? How hard can it be to shutdown and inspect these facilities during the week of Thanksgiving? And then track down all of the stores and restaurants that received the affected romaine? And then try to figure out who they sold it to? Maybe they should have just issued a warning during the halftime show of the 4 o'clock football game on Thanksgiving?
Dan: Did you see that pass, Bob? He took it to the house!
Bob: Speaking of passing, Bob, don't forget to pass on the romaine lettuce. That E.coli can give you the runs.
Dan: Speaking of runs, Bob, let's get back to the first half highlights.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday November 24 2018, @07:01AM
Even in the absence of this supposed threat, romaine lettuce has some risk from this very thing. That didn't stop me from eating it in the past.
It should at least do some due diligence here.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by sjames on Friday November 23 2018, @08:20PM (3 children)
It's a reasonable bet that if you have 32 cases serious enough to motivate someone to get medical help and figure out what exactly made them sick and 13 of those lead to hospitalization, you have about 10 times that who got a prescription for antibiotics but no determination of cause and many many more where the person lived on the porcelain throne for a couple days but didn't go to the doctor.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday November 24 2018, @07:06AM (2 children)
(Score: 2) by sjames on Sunday November 25 2018, @09:53AM (1 child)
So the lettuce is fine? You first!
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday November 26 2018, @06:01PM