According to the CDC, the Salmonella Bareilly and Salmonella Nchanga outbreak linked to raw scraped tuna has grown again. Now 390 people in 27 states and the District of Columbia have been sickened by the contaminated product; that’s an increase of 74 new cases from the last update in May. Kansas is now part of the outbreak. Forty-seven people have been hospitalized in this outbreak.
A raw tuna product called Nakaochi Scrape imported by Moon Marine USA Corporation was recalled as the source of this outbreak. Lab tests conducted by public health laboratories in Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Wisconsin have isolated the outbreak strains of Salmonella from 95% of the samples taken from intact packages of that product. And in April 2012, the FDA inspected the Moon Fishery facility in India that supplied the raw tuna and found violations of their HACCP plan, which did not contain the necessary critical control points.
The numbers of new cases has declined since the peak in April 2012. The outbreak may continue for several months because some facilities may have the frozen product in their freezers and continue to serve it, since it has a long shelf-life. If you order any sushi product that contains raw ground or scraped tuna, ask the establishment if it is part of this recall.
Case count for Salmonella Bareilly:
- Alabama (4)
- Arkansas (1)
- California (7)
- Colorado (1)
- Connecticut (11)
- District of Columbia (3)
- Florida (1)
- Georgia (18)
- Illinois (29)
- Indiana (1)
- Kansas (1)
- Louisiana (6)
- Massachusetts (36)
- Maryland (39)
- Missouri (4)
- Mississippi (2)
- Nebraska (2)
- New Jersey (35)
- New York (58)
- North Carolina (12)
- Pennsylvania (34)
- Rhode Island (6)
- South Carolina (4)
- Tennessee (4)
- Texas (13)
- Virginia (22)
- Vermont (1)
- Wisconsin (21)
Case count for Salmonella Nchanga:
- Georgia (2)
- Maryland (1)
- New Jersey (2)
- New York (6)
- Texas (1)
- Virginia (1)
- Wisconsin (1)
The 74 new cases are from these states and the District of Columbia:
- Alabama (1)
- California (3)
- Connecticut (2)
- District of Columbia (1)
- Georgia (5)
- Illinois (2)
- Kansas (1)
- Louisiana (2)
- Massachusetts (3)
- Maryland (13)
- Nebraska (1)
- New Jersey (9)
- New York (10)
- North Carolina (2)
- Pennsylvania (9)
- South Carolina (1)
- Texas (7)
- Wisconsin (2)
Illness onset dates range from January 1, 2012 to June 3, 2012. The patients range in age from less than 1 year to 86 years; the median age is 30 years. Sixty percent of the patients are female. The CDC says that illnesses that occurred after May 18, 2012 might not be reported yet because it takes time between when a person becomes ill and when the case is reported to the government.
You can see a timeline of events at the CDC website.
