— Red peril? —
IHS confirms 14 local cases
of salmonella
[photo illustration by Daniel Zollinger]

By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

GALLUP — The Navajo Area Indian Health Service has so far confirmed 14 cases of salmonella on the Navajo Reservation.

“These are all over the Navajo Reservation in northwestern New Mexico,” Dr. Ines Vigil said, one of the two epidermioloists with the IHS working on the outbreak, which began in early May.

Of these, five have had to be hospitalized overnight. The rest were treated as outpatients.

All of the cases in this area have been linked to two stores, a Wal-Mart in Farmington and a Basha’s in Crownpoint.

Wal-Mart has not responded to requests for information about how they are handling the situation, but officials for Basha’s have decided that for the present time, they will not be offering tomatoes for sale, nor will they be using tomatoes in their deli.

“We have been getting conflicting information from the state about this,” said a spokeswoman for the supermarket chain, which has seven stores on the reservation and a number of others in Arizona, “so we decided to err on the side of caution.”

The tomatoes were taken off the shelves at the Crownpoint store this past weekend. The other managers were told to remove the tomatoes off the shelves about 5 p.m., Tuesday.

Some stores in this area are continuing to sell tomatoes, warning customers to make sure they wash them before they eat them. Cooking them will also destroy any salmonella.

Vigil said the IHS is following the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is recommending consumers in affected areas not to eat tomatoes at this time. Officials for the New Mexico Health Department are urging consumers that if they do buy tomatoes to wash them thoroughly or serve them cooked.