(Fox News) – A multidrug-resistant strain of salmonella that has sickened hundreds has been linked to Mexican-style soft cheese and beef, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a warning this week. The strain — salmonella Newport — sickened 255 people in 32 states from June 2018 to March of this year. At least 60 people were hospitalized and two died, the CDC said in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published Thursday. The illnesses were mostly linked to soft cheeses purchased in Mexico and beef in the U.S., officials said.

Roughly 43 percent of patients reported visiting Mexico prior to falling ill, officials said, adding a number of them also recalled eating soft cheese and beef prior to infection. In fact, “among patients who traveled to Mexico with information on food consumption, 87 [percent] reported eating beef, and 63 [percent] reported eating soft cheese; among those, 79 [percent] recalled obtaining the cheese in Mexico,” the CDC said. In particular, many of the patients reported eating queso fresco — a soft cheese typically made with raw, unpasteurized milk from cows or goats — before they were infected. CONTINUE