Lettuce led to illness

ICEBERG lettuce, believed to have been imported from Spain, caused an outbreak of a mild form of dysentery last month, writes Rosie Waterhouse.

An investigation by the Communicable Diseases Surveillance Centre concluded it was likely to be that the lettuce had been washed with river rather than tap water.

Laboratory reports showed that, over four weeks in late May and early June, the number of adults infected with shigella sonnei, a mild form of dysentery, was 505, of whom 333 were adults, compared with 211 during the same period last year.

The cases occurred mainly in the south and south-west of England.