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Saturday November 23, 2024
(NEW YORK) -- An infant has died in a listeria outbreak linked to a brand of ready-to-eat meat and poultry products, federal authorities said Friday.
As of Friday, 11 people have been infected in four states in the outbreak, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among them, nine people have been hospitalized and an infant from California has died, the CDC said.
The infections have been linked to recalled ready-to-eat meat and poultry products by Yu Shang Food, based in Spartanburg, South Carolina, according to the CDC. The recalled products include pork hock, chicken feet, pork feet, duck neck, beef shank and pork tongue.
Most of the cases -- seven -- were in California, while two were in Illinois and one each in New York and New Jersey, according to the CDC. Those infected ranged in age from under 1 to 86, with a median age of 64, according to the CDC.
The infant who died and his pregnant mother were both infected in the outbreak, according to the CDC. The infant had a twin who also died, though listeria was not found in the other twin's sample and the case is not included in the outbreak, the CDC said.
One other listeria illness was reported in an infant who recovered, the CDC said.
"We did not receive any reported illness from the group of 11 illness," Yu Shang Food told ABC News. "Those 11 cases are collected by CDC from 2021 to 2024. Among of these 11 illnesses, there are 9 people only mentioned they had visited Asian stores before they got sick, but not mention they purchased YUSHANG brand products or ate YUSHANG brand products. There was 1 infant dead, but no evidence showed the mother ate Yushang brand products to get sick, only mentioned she ate Yushang brand products before got sick."
"The true number of sick people in this outbreak is likely higher than the number reported, and the outbreak may not be limited to the states with known illnesses," the CDC said.
Yu Shang Food has recalled approximately 72,240 pounds of ready-to-eat meat and poultry products due to possible listeria contamination, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) said on Thursday.
The recalled foods include products made before Oct. 28, the CDC said. The products subject to recall have the number “P-46684” or “EST. M46684” inside the USDA mark of inspection. They were shipped to retail locations nationwide and were sold online.
The full list of recalled items can be viewed here. Anyone with the products is advised to throw them away or return them to the place of purchase, and surfaces should be thoroughly cleaned. Listeria can survive in the refrigerator at cooler temperatures and easily contaminate other foods.
"FSIS is concerned that some product may be in consumers’ refrigerators/freezers," the agency said.
The FSIS said the problem was discovered when a finished food product produced by Yu Shang Food tested positive for listeria on Oct. 21. Listeria was detected in additional testing of product and environmental samples collected by the FSIS, it said.
"Working in conjunction with public health partners, FSIS determined that there is a link between the [ready-to-eat] meat and poultry products from Yu Shang Food, Inc. and an illness cluster," the FSIS said.
The company initially issued a recall on Nov. 9 that was expanded on Thursday.
People aged 65 and older, pregnant women and those with weakened immune systems are more at risk of serious illness due to listeria, according to the CDC.
Symptoms usually start within two weeks of eating food contaminated with listeria and can include fever, muscle aches, headache, tiredness, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and seizures, according to the CDC.
The CDC advises contacting a health care provider right away if symptoms develop.
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(NEW YORK) -- Jussie Smollett's attorney said the actor was "harmed substantially" after he was found guilty of lying about a 2019 hate crime in an interview with "GMA3" following the overturning of his conviction.
The Illinois Supreme Court threw out the former "Empire" actor's conviction in a decision on Thursday after concluding that the state's prosecution was unfair due to an agreement that initially dropped the charges.
Smollett was first indicted on 16 felony counts of disorderly conduct for filing a false police report, though Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx agreed to drop the charges if he paid $10,000 and did community service. A special prosecutor later charged him again, leading to his trial and conviction.
In its decision on Thursday, the court found that the state could not bring a second prosecution against Smollett after the initial charges were dismissed, and that reneging on the agreement "would be arbitrary, unreasonable, fundamentally unfair, and a violation of the defendant's due process rights."
Tina Glandian, Smollett's attorney, told "GMA3" on Friday that they have been fighting the second prosecution from the start as "completely illegal."
"It violates numerous constitutional provisions," she said. "We've raised this numerous, numerous times before, various courts. And finally yesterday, the Supreme Court of Illinois agreed with us and said the second prosecution was barred because there was an agreement in place and the state is bound to honor its word."
The case began after the openly gay actor told police he was attacked by two men while walking on a street near his Chicago apartment early on Jan. 29, 2019. The attackers allegedly shouted racist and homophobic slurs before hitting him, pouring "an unknown chemical substance" on him and wrapping a rope around his neck.
Chicago police said Smollett's story of being the victim of an attack began to unravel when investigators tracked down two men, brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, who they said were seen in a security video near where Smollett claimed he was assaulted and around the same time it supposedly occurred. The Osundairo brothers told police the actor paid them $3,500 to help him orchestrate and stage the crime.
A jury convicted Smollett in December 2021 on five of six felony counts of disorderly conduct stemming from filing a false police report and lying to police, who spent more than $130,000 investigating his allegations.
Dan Webb, who was appointed by a Cook County judge to continue looking into the case after the Cook County State's Attorney's Office initially dropped all charges against the actor, said he was "disappointed" in the court's decision and noted that the ruling "has nothing to do with Mr. Smollett's innocence."
"The Illinois Supreme Court did not find any error with the overwhelming evidence presented at trial that Mr. Smollett orchestrated a fake hate crime and reported it to the Chicago Police Department as a real hate crime, or the jury's unanimous verdict that Mr. Smollett was guilty of five counts of felony disorderly conduct," he said in a statement.
Glandian said Smollett continues to maintain his innocence and has "vehemently denied" any participation in a hoax.
"We do believe he didn't get a fair trial, that the jury didn't hear all the evidence that should have [been] heard, that things were improperly excluded, that the jury panel was not properly put together," she said. "The Supreme Court yesterday didn't get to that issue. They said legally this was invalid. It violated his due process and they, based on that, threw out the conviction. But we still maintain that he didn't receive a fair trial."
In the wake of the case, she said Smollett has been releasing music and "continued to do what he does best."
"I think hopefully, obviously this can only help matters because he was harmed substantially after everything that happened, and of course, the convictions and the sentence that was imposed," she said.
Webb said that despite the Illinois Supreme Court's decision, the city of Chicago is still able to pursue its pending civil lawsuit against Smollett in order to recoup the investigation costs.
Glandian said she hopes the city "does the right thing" and dismisses that case.
"He's incurred substantial legal fees. He spent six days in jail, all of which now has been said by the highest court in Illinois was completely unconstitutional," Glandian said. "So for the city now to further proceed, we'll see what they do. But hopefully they dismiss that case immediately."
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