As of March 29, 2011, 13 persons infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Panama have been reported from Oregon (5 cases), Washington (4 cases), California (2 cases), Colorado (1 case) and Maryland (1 case). Reported dates of illness onset range from February 5, 2011 to March 4, 2011. Ill persons range in age from less than 1 year old to 68 years old, with a median age of 12 years old. Sixty-two percent are male. Among ill persons, three have been hospitalized and no deaths have been reported.

Collaborative investigative efforts of state, local, and federal public health and regulatory agencies have linked this outbreak to eating cantaloupe. On March 22, 2011, Del Monte Fresh Produce N.A., Inc. voluntarily recalled cantaloupes. Consumer should not eat recalled cantaloupes and restaurant and food service operators should not serve them. The cantaloupes, grown in and shipped from Del Monte Fresh’s farm Asuncion Mita in Guatemala, have a light brown color skin on the exterior with orange flesh. The recalled cartons of cantaloupes are dark brown cardboard with the “Del Monte” logo in red lettering and “cantaloupes” in yellow lettering on a green background. The cantaloupes have the lot codes: 02-15-24-10, 02-15-25-10, 02-15-26-10 and 02-15-28-10. No illness has been linked to cantaloupes from other sources.

An updated table of salmonella-in-cantaloupe outbreaks and recalls is available at:
http://bites.ksu.edu/cantaloupe-related-outbreaks.