So apparently there's been an outbreak of listeria in the US with at least 8 deaths since August linked to ingestion of Colorado cantaloupe.
The median age of affected persons is somewhere in the 80s, reflecting the general fact that listeria is often completely asymptomatic in healthy people. However, an asymptomatic pregnant woman can still pass it on to her fetus and listeria in a fetus is very scary.
So am I crazy for not eating cantaloupe? When I first heard about this outbreak, I saw that my state was not on the list of states the affected farm exported to, but states around me were. In a moment of panic, I made DH eat the cantaloupe I had packed myself for lunch and took it off my shopping list.
A week later I decided that was silly so I went out and bought some more cantaloupe. I packed it for lunch today but just before eating it I decided to google "cantaloupe listeria X state" and it turns out they just traced a death not far from me to listeria from these cantaloupes. They're still not sure how she got the cantaloupe or if it was/is distributed in our state.
Am I nuts to stop eating it? I'm not usually super careful about this sort of thing -- I don't avoid nitrates, I have a cup of real coffee every morning, I use artificial sweeteners (very moderately, but still) -- but listeria just sort of freaks me out.
Is anyone else out there in the midwest or eastern seaboard avoiding cantaloupe?
The median age of affected persons is somewhere in the 80s, reflecting the general fact that listeria is often completely asymptomatic in healthy people. However, an asymptomatic pregnant woman can still pass it on to her fetus and listeria in a fetus is very scary.
So am I crazy for not eating cantaloupe? When I first heard about this outbreak, I saw that my state was not on the list of states the affected farm exported to, but states around me were. In a moment of panic, I made DH eat the cantaloupe I had packed myself for lunch and took it off my shopping list.
A week later I decided that was silly so I went out and bought some more cantaloupe. I packed it for lunch today but just before eating it I decided to google "cantaloupe listeria X state" and it turns out they just traced a death not far from me to listeria from these cantaloupes. They're still not sure how she got the cantaloupe or if it was/is distributed in our state.
Am I nuts to stop eating it? I'm not usually super careful about this sort of thing -- I don't avoid nitrates, I have a cup of real coffee every morning, I use artificial sweeteners (very moderately, but still) -- but listeria just sort of freaks me out.
Is anyone else out there in the midwest or eastern seaboard avoiding cantaloupe?