Salmonella cases spread across state

The state said the number of cases rose to 130 Tuesday.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
SHARON, Pa. -- United Community Hospital in Grove City treated six confirmed cases of salmonella poisoning as a statewide rash of salmonella continued to spread.
The hospital said Tuesday that the six cases came from three counties, but a hospital spokesman refused to release any further information, referring questions to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
The department offered no specifics on the local cases but said the number of cases statewide rose to 130.
Richard McGarvey, department spokesman, said the investigation continues to focus on lettuce and tomatoes used by Sheetz Inc. convenience stores to make sandwiches.
Removal
The company has 300 stores and ordered all of them to remove all of the lettuce and tomatoes from their facilities and to resanitize their food preparation areas one week ago today. The company also secured a new supplier for those items.
McGarvey said some Roma tomatoes taken from a Sheetz store in Franklin County earlier this week were found to be contaminated with salmonella.
The state Department of Agriculture determined, however, that it was a different strain than the one affecting people who became ill after eating sandwiches from Sheetz stores.
One Mercer County woman, Patty Schuster of Transfer, said she became ill after eating a turkey sandwich with lettuce and tomatoes from the Sheetz store in Transfer on July 13, one day before Sheetz ordered the produce removed from its stores.
Schuster said UPMC Horizon determined that she suffered from salmonella poisoning, but she didn't know yet if it was the same strain affecting other victims.
The state health department is handling that part of the investigation, she said.
The hospital confirmed it had one case of salmonella poisoning.
The health department said cases have been reported in 31 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties as of Tuesday afternoon.
Seven of them, including Butler County, had more than five cases each. The remainder, including Mercer, Lawrence, Venango and Beaver, had less than five.