| Advertisement |
ATLANTA, April 21 (UPI) -- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday increased the number of people sickened by listeria after eating Blue Bell ice cream to 10. The health agency said two additional patients were confirmed to have contracted the infection since its last status update April 8. The two new patients were from Arizona and Oklahoma.
Advertisement
A total of 10 people have become ill after eating ice cream products made by Blue Bell, which completely recalled all products Monday.
Five were from Kansas, three from Texas, one from Arizona and one from Oklahoma. Three of the Kansas patients -- who became sick after consuming tainted milkshakes at a hospital -- died. They were already hospitalized for unrelated illnesses.
All ten patients were hospitalized.
The illnesses date from January 2010 to January 2015, the CDC said. One person became sick in each of the following months: January 2010, March and April 2012, January and March 2014, and January 2015. Three people became sick in October 2014.
Since March 13, Blue Bell has announced ever-expanding recalls of its products, culminating Tuesday when the company said it would pull all products from shelves nationwide.
The company has introduced a new "test and hold policy," meaning all products will be tested and held for release to the public until the results have come back negative for the bacteria. Blue Bell's plant in Broken Arrow, Okla., remains closed.
Blue Bell also says it is implementing new measures to prevent future contamination, including expanding its procedures for cleaning and sanitizing equipment, expanding its system for testing the plant environment, sending daily samples to laboratories for testing, and providing additional employee training.
