Mexico Imports Face Cholera Tests : Health: U.S. will check seafood from Gulf Coast waters and Mexican produce and fish after 27 people contract the disease in that country.

Federal laboratories are preparing to test produce and seafood imported from Mexico for cholera following confirmation that 27 people came down with the potentially fatal disease in central Mexico.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced the tests in an internal communication issued last Friday, which also announced expanded monitoring of domestic raw and processed seafood from the Gulf of Mexico.

The FDA already is testing samples of food imports from Peru, Colombia and Ecuador for cholera. Since January, a cholera epidemic in the three South American nations has infected more than 270,000 people and claimed 3,000 lives. But so far the FDA has found no cholera in food imports from those nations.

The cholera cases in Mexico, which first surfaced June 13, have been centered in the towns of Tula and Sultepec in the state of Mexico north of Mexico City.

A spokesman for the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles said that the intensified U.S. testing is a standard precaution.

Martin Torres, consular press attache, said Mexican health officials anticipated that the cholera epidemic might spread to their country in January and made preparations to handle the disease.

“The problem has not spread and the cases we have encountered are very localized in rural, not urbanized, areas,” he said. “The system is working and the cases are controlled.”

The FDA said that Mexican produce or seafood that is rinsed in water or packed in ice will be subject to the cholera testing. Initially, 40 such shipments will be tested each week by the FDA’s regional offices in Los Angeles and Dallas, according to agency spokesman Emil Corwin in Washington. The sampling will be expanded as necessary.

Mexico annually exports approximately $1.5 billion in produce and another $52 million in seafood, most of which is shipped to the United States.

FDA tests of Gulf of Mexico seafood produced two cholera discoveries near Mobile, Ala., earlier this month--in an oyster from a bed closed to commercial harvesting, and in a non-commercial fish species. Samples of seafood taken from Alabama waters by state and federal officials since then have been negative for the disease.

Cholera symptoms include acute diarrhea, nausea and vomiting that can lead to fatal shock. But once diagnosed, cholera can be treated with little risk of further illness.

Consumers can contract the disease by eating or drinking products that contain the bacteria. Heating foods to 170 degrees Fahrenheit will destroy cholera bacteria. However, the bacteria becomes dormant in cold or freezing temperatures, reappearing when the food is thawed.

The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services recently issued a report urging the area’s medical professionals to be “alert and prepared for potential introduction (of cholera) via travel or contaminated food products.” However, the agency said that the risk of widespread infection in the region is “low.”

An FDA official also downplayed the possibility that cholera may become a serious problem in this country.

“There is little likelihood (of an epidemic) because most areas of the United States are protected by sanitary sewage, chlorine-treated waters and the availability of proper medical treatment (if infection occurs),” the FDA’s Chris Lecos said in Washington.

The cholera tests are an addition to the FDA’s normal responsibilities involving analyses of imported foods for other microbiological hazards and pesticide residues.

Critics of the FDA say the agency is overburdened, even without the cholera crisis.

“The FDA is overextended, under-funded and cannot protect the public health,” said Jodie Silverman, communications director for Public Voice for Food and Health Policy, a Washington-based advocacy group. “They were not adequately testing seafood prior to the cholera problem.”

A seafood industry representative, however, applauded the FDA’s efforts.

“We are generally pleased that the FDA (and other federal agencies) have intensified their inspection of all (food) products,” said John Filose, vice president for Ocean Garden Products Inc., the leading importer of Mexican seafood to this country. “Any time you have an issue of public confidence then I’m glad to see the FDA step in in a forceful manner.”

Filose said that his firm has its seafood products analyzed for purity in three different outlets: its own laboratory, by independent labs and by the U.S. government under a voluntary seafood inspection program. No evidence of cholera has been found, he said.

There have been about two dozen cases of cholera reported in the United States since the South American epidemic began, most of which were linked to travel to the infected areas or from food illegally imported from the cholera zone.

The county Health Services Department urged several precautions for those traveling to infected areas:

--Do not consume unboiled or untreated water or ice (municipal water may be contaminated).

--Do not purchase or consume food or beverages from street vendors.

--Avoid raw or partially cooked fish and shellfish, including ceviche.

--Do not consume uncooked vegetables.

--Carbonated water or soft drinks are usually safe if no ice is added.

--Eat only foods that are cooked and hot, or fruit that you peel personally.