Maine, New Hampshire and New York Leading in Hannaford Salmonella Cases
Maine, New Hampshire and New York are the leading states in the Hannaford ground beef Salmonella outbreak when it comes to the number of people who have been infected and confirmed as case patients. In its first detailed report on the outbreak of multidrug-resistant Salmonella Typhimurium, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said each of the three Northeast states is home to four confirmed cases, or three-fourths of the total number of 16 illnesses.
The CDC said four other states each have one case: Hawaii, Massachusetts, Kentucky and Vermont. More than half of those stricken from the contaminated ground beef have been hospitalized, starting in October.
"CDC and state and local public health partners are continuing laboratory surveillance through PulseNet to identify additional ill persons and to interview ill persons about foods eaten before becoming ill,'' the CDC said in its report.
It was patient interviews that first led the USDA and other investigators to associate the outbreak with fresh ground beef sold by the Hannaford supermarket chain. Due to insufficient grinding logs kept by Hannaford, however, the investigation has failed to identify the meatpacker that is responsible for supplying containinated raw cuts and trim that the retailer mixed into hamburger.
The Hannaford ground beef recall involves packages that have sell-by dates of December 17 or earlier. Click here for details on the Salmonella ground beef recall.
