Salmonella tied to 3 deaths in Va., Minn.

STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
Published: January 14, 2009

Laboratory tests found salmonella in this 5-pound container of King Nut peanut butter from a Minnesota nursing home.

Two of the three deaths associated with a national salmonella outbreak occurred in Virginia, health officials confirmed yesterday.

Two adults in Virginia had salmonella when they died, though it's not clear that the illness is what killed them, said Michelle Peregoy, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Health.

Peregoy said one of the people who died lived in the northwest region of the state and one lived in the southwest.

"They were both adults who had pre-existing conditions," she said.

State health officials would not say if the Virginia deaths occurred in a nursing home or other institution, and they could not say how the victims contracted the disease.

The number of Virginia salmonellosis cases believed connected to the outbreak is up to 17, five more cases than reported last week, she said.

"I suspect there could be more people who would present with symptoms or have been to the doctor and we have not gotten the results yet," Peregoy said. "The evidence is leaning toward peanut butter, but we have not 100 percent nailed down that is the connection.

"I don't know where they came across it or if they all did."

Earlier, Minnesota health officials said an elderly woman in that state had the illness at the time of her death.

Health officials are urging nursing homes, hospitals, schools, universities and restaurants to toss out specific containers of peanut butter linked to the salmonella outbreak in 43 states that has made more than 400 people ill.

The recalled peanut butter -- distributed by King Nut Companies of Solon, Ohio -- was supplied only through food-service providers and was not sold directly to consumers. King Nut challenged the finding, saying it distributes to only seven states.

The peanut butter was manufactured in Georgia at a plant run by Peanut Corp. of America of Lynchburg, Va.

State health officials in Minnesota said most of its 30 confirmed cases there were linked to the King Nut brand, but they and health officials in other states are working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to determine if there were other sources.

"The question is, who else distributes this product from Peanut Corporation? We're trying to find out where else this product would have gone," Doug Schultz, a spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Health, said yesterday.

King Nut Companies on Sunday asked its customers to stop using peanut butter under its King Nut and Parnell's Pride brands with a lot code that begins with the numeral "8."

CDC officials say the bacteria in the current outbreak has been fingerprinted genetically as the Typhimurium type, which is among the most common sources of salmonella food poisoning.

Staff writer Tammie L. Smith contributed to this report.