ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 4, 1997 TAG: 9704040049
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
The strawberries came from a company that falsely labeled them as U.S. fruit to get them accepted by the school lunch program.
Many of them giggling and putting up a brave front, youngsters lined up in two states for shots Thursday to protect them against hepatitis from a contaminated, illegal shipment of frozen strawberries.
``Needles don't scare me. I've already taken a lot of shots,'' said 9-year-old Lucy Kadzhikyan, a fourth-grader at Ramona Elementary in Hollywood.
About 2,000 children in California and Georgia received shots Thursday, and officials in four others states worked to prevent the spread of the disease from tainted berries believed to have been served in school lunches.
One inner-city Los Angeles school served the suspect dessert cups on Monday after it was left off a list of schools warned last Friday. More than 700 kids and teachers at Mount Vernon Middle School will have to get shots next week. ``A clerical error left Mount Vernon off,'' district spokesman Brad Sales said. ``By the time we contacted the food service manager, the fruit cups had already been served.''
So far, the only reported cases of hepatitis attributed to the frozen, sliced strawberries have been in Michigan, with 163 children and adults sickened. Children at schools in Iowa, Arizona and Tennessee may also have eaten the tainted fruit.
Unlike more dangerous forms of the disease, hepatitis A causes a mild liver infection. It is spread through uncooked food. The elderly, people with weak immune systems and the very young are at most risk. Gamma globulin shots ward off the disease.
Federal investigators worked to track the berries, which came from Mexico. The strawberries were distributed by a company that falsely labeled them U.S. fruit to get them accepted by the government's school lunch program. The company could face criminal charges.
``Our requirements are that the product must be domestic and it's got to be certified that it meets all health and safety inspections. And it virtually always is. Once in a while, you have a bad actor,'' Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said Thursday. Improvements in surveillance, technology, inspections and response are needed, Dr. David Satcher, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ``We do have to tighten up in every way,'' Satcher told CNN.
White House spokesman Mike McCurry was asked if President Clinton was disturbed by the response of the Agriculture Department and the Department of Health and Human Services.
``The president is concerned about some of the things that have been reported but acknowledged that both departments took quick steps to ... respond to public health concerns'' and examine how it happened, he said.
Youngsters at three Los Angeles schools administering shots Thursday smiled for the most part, but tears did flow occasionally.
Ten-year-old Mark Segismundo covered his face with his hands, clenched his teeth and flinched slightly when the 11/2-inch needle was inserted in his rump.
``It didn't feel that bad!'' he said with a smile.
The $18 per-dose inoculations will be paid for by San Diego-based Andrew & Williamson Sales Co., the packing company that distributed the frozen strawberries. Federal officials have recalled 2.6 million pounds of them.
LENGTH: Medium: 68 linesby CNB