LOS ANGELES : Seafood Called Likely Source of Cholera on Plane
A seafood salad prepared by a Peruvian catering company is the likely source of a cholera outbreak that has infected at least 76 passengers aboard a Argentine airlines fight, Los Angeles County health officials said Friday.
After conducting a detailed survey asking passengers to identity what food and water they consumed and where they consumed it, passengers who ate the seafood salad were six times more likely to become infected than those who did not consume it, officials said.
The salad contained 13 ingredients, including fish, shrimp, eggs, mayonnaise and pickles. It was consumed during the Lima to Los Angeles leg of Aerolineas’ Flight 386 that originated in Buenos Aires.
“We don’t know when or how the contamination occurred,” said Dr. Shirley Fannin, director of disease control for the Department of Health Services. “All our study can tell us is that this food was the highest commonality” among those who contracted the illness.
There were 336 people aboard the flight. Of the confirmed cholera cases, 51 were found in California. One Los Angeles County man died.
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