A good measure of how fast a pandemic will spread across the globe in the Apocalypse:
As of early Friday morning, 70 cases of hepatitis A in seven states have been linked to tainted frozen strawberries shipped to the United States from Egypt and served by a popular smoothie restaurant chain.
Most of the cases of the liver infection caused by the hepatitis A virus are in the Mid-Atlantic area.
With 55 confirmed cases, Virginia contains the bulk of the outbreak. Six more cases were confirmed in Maryland, five in West Virginia, and one in North Carolina, Wisconsin, New York and Oregon
Harvested food which isn’t boiled before consumption is always a risk of infection. The harvesters, out in a field all day, will often go to the bathroom in the field. Because there are no facilities to wash up, they will then resume harvesting the food, contaminating it with fecal material via their hands.
Other animals, like hogs, will also periodically travel through the field, spraying fecal material, and seeding the soil which will spray up on the vegetable matter with each rain.
Personally, I don’t know why anyone would eat uncooked salads, but then again, the whole classification of vegetables as food seems kind of silly to me. The strawberries do hurt, but they can easily be grown yourself. There are even ever-bearing varieties which will yield a constant stream of fruit throughout the growing season, and they can even be grown in pots. Their yield is actually quite impressive, if you can keep slugs and birds at bay.
An important part of survival in the Apocalypse will be your ability to isolate yourself, and minimize exposure to potential pathogen vectors – especially since medicines and quality medical care may be very difficult to come by.
[…] 70 Now Sickened By Egyptian Strawberries […]