A total of 173 people infected with the outbreak strains of Salmonella Kiambu (51), Salmonella Thompson (111), Salmonella Agona (7), or Salmonella Gaminara (4) have been reported from 21 states. Connecticut 6, Delaware 4, Iowa 2, Illinois 3, Kentucky 4, Louisiana 1, Maryland 8, Massachusetts 8, Michigan 1, Minnesota 4, Missouri 1, North Carolina 5, New Jersey 36, New York 50, Ohio 1, Oklahoma 4, Pennsylvania 8, Tennessee 1, Texas 9, Virginia 16, Wisconsin 1. Fifty-eight ill people have been hospitalized. One death was reported from New York City.
The CDC, public health and regulatory officials in several states, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are investigating a multistate outbreak of Salmonella infections. This outbreak includes four different types of Salmonella: Kiambu, Thompson, Agona, and Gaminara. The same strain of these types of Salmonella were found in samples collected from papayas and from ill people.
Epidemiologic and laboratory evidence indicates that Maradol papayas from the Carica de Campeche farm in Mexico are the likely source of this multistate outbreak. Three brands of Maradol papayas have been recalled: Caribeña brand, distributed by Grande Produce; certain Cavi brand papayas distributed by Agroson’s; and Valery brand papayas, distributed by Freshtex Produce, LLC. If anyone has these papayas in their home, they should dispose of them immediately. The FDA has also added the Carica de Campeche farm to Import Alert (IA) 99-35, after testing found multiple strains of Salmonella present in the fruit. Thus far, Salmonella strains matching the outbreak patterns by PFGE were only isolated from papayas from the Carica de Campeche farm.