Among 294 patients for whom clinical information is available, 60 (20 per cent) were hospitalized.
No deaths have been attributed to this infection. Onset dates, which are known for 256 patients, ranged from 1 Aug 2006 to 16 Feb 2007, and 62 per cent of these illnesses began after 1 Dec 2006.
PulseNet (the national subtyping network for foodborne disease surveillance coordinated by CDC) detected a slowly rising increase in cases of _Salmonella_ Tennessee this fall. OutbreakNet (the national network of public health officials coordinated by CDC that investigates enteric
disease outbreaks) then worked for several weeks to identify this unusual food vehicle.
Public health officials from several states have isolated salmonella from open jars of peanut butter of both Peter Pan and Great Value brands. For 9 jars, the serotype has been confirmed as Tennessee and DNA fingerprinting has shown that the pattern is the outbreak strain.
FDA officials and the peanut butter manufacturer are working collaboratively to learn more about production of peanut butter to determine how it may have become contaminated.
The states that have reported cases are Alaska (1 case), Alabama (10), Arkansas (3), Arizona (5), California (4), Colorado (11), Connecticut (2),
Florida (4), Georgia (18), Iowa (7), Illinois (9), Indiana (15), Kansas (9), Kentucky (10), Massachusetts (6), Maryland (2), Maine (1), Michigan (9), Minnesota (5), Missouri (17), Mississippi (5), Montana (2), Nebraska (2), Nevada (1), New Jersey (6), New Mexico (1), New York (41), North Carolina (22), North Dakota (1), Ohio (9), Oklahoma (11), Oregon (2),
Pennsylvania (27), South Carolina (8), South Dakota (6), Tennessee (18), Texas (16), Virginia (23), Vermont (7), Washington (4), Wisconsin (6), and West Virginia (4).
Source: www.promedmail.org
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