Green Onions Linked to Hepatitis Outbreak (I love mexican food) [View All]

[Noordam]

AP NEWS

November 21, 2003
Green Onions Linked to Hepatitis Outbreak
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 12:39 p.m. ET

BEAVER, Pa. (AP) -- Green onions were the likely source of a deadly hepatitis A outbreak at a Mexican restaurant last month, but the origin of the onions and how they were tainted remains unclear, state health officials said Friday.

``All the evidence suggests that people had direct contact with the green onions,'' said Joel Hersh, director of epidemiology for the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

The outbreak, which has killed three people and sickened at least 575, is the nation's largest ever from a single source -- a Chi-Chi's restaurant at the Beaver Valley Mall, about 25 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.

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But shortly after the outbreak was confirmed Nov. 3, the Food and Drug Administration issued a national advisory that to ensure safety, purchased green onions should be cooked and not eaten raw.

It is not known whether the green onions behind the Pennsylvania outbreak are linked to those already known to have caused smaller outbreaks of hepatitis A in Tennessee and Georgia in September.

The FDA announced Thursday that it has traced green onions in those outbreaks to three Mexican suppliers and is inspecting all green onion shipments from them.


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