It has been reported by the Public Health Canada (PHC) on Thursday that the Salmonella Newport outbreak related to U.S. grown onions has terminated. 515 confirmed cases of Salmonella Newport illness associated to this outbreak were registered.
In the US, at least 1,012 people were reported to have affected with the outbreak up till Aug. 31. The Salmonella Newport outbreak has affected people from 47 states of the US. The outbreaks in both countries have been related to Thomson International Inc. based in California.
In Canada, numbers of patients based on provinces are as follows: Alberta -293, British Columbia – 121, Manitoba – 26, Ontario – 14, Prince Edward Island – 1, Saskatchewan – 35, and Quebec – 25.
People became ill between mid-June and late-August of this year. 79 people required hospitalization. 3 individuals lost their lives, but Salmonella did not play a role to the cause these deaths, as per the Public Health Agency of Canada.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration carried out inspections which initially indicated a connection between the sickness and red onions, but due to the methods onions are grown, harvested, and packed other onion types, like white, yellow, or sweet yellow, are also believed to have contaminated.
Public health officials in the US report that 34 illness clusters have been detected in 13 states of the concerned states. Information was gathered about 23 out of the 34 clusters at restaurants and grocery shops. Information from these clusters depicts that many sick people consumed either red or the other types of onions.
Investigations done by U.S. state and federal officials decided that all 23 restaurants and grocery stores were particularly found as having served or sold red, yellow, or white onions. Seventeen of the 23 (74 %) used red onions, 13 (57 %) served yellow onions, and 10 (43 %) utilized white onions.