An 87-year-old Norfolk County man has died of a bacterial infection linked to tainted milk produced by a mom-and-pop dairy, the third death related to the outbreak, state health authorities reported yesterday.
The man, who fell ill in November, died Thursday while hospitalized. Officials at the Department of Public Health declined to identify him, citing patient confidentiality laws.
Two other elderly men died earlier of listeriosis, and all three cases of the bacterial disease have been associated with contaminated milk produced at Whittier Farms in Central Massachusetts.
State disease investigators also reported yesterday that the total number of cases of listeriosis attributed to the milk has risen by one, to five. A 31-year-old Middlesex County woman was diagnosed with the disease in September while in the hospital to deliver a baby, said Dr. Alfred DeMaria, the state's director of communicable disease control. Investigators connected her to the outbreak after discovering that she had consumed 2 percent and whole milk made by Whittier.
STEPHEN SMITH
