The number of people infected by the salmonella outbreak managed to reach 1,000. At this point there are 1,065 people in more than 40 states dealing with the troublesome bacteria.

As there is still no clear answer to where the spread began and not even if tomatoes are truly the cause, the authorities have been looking at several other scenarios including one related to two other suspects, jalapenos and raw serranos. Apparently, the red romas, red plums and red rounds, initially thought to have started the whole incident, might not be completely responsible, as there have been several reports of people complaining about salmonella-like symptoms after eating the chili peppers.

The investigators from the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are now following on both leads, tomatoes and chili peppers, in order to speed the process of identifying the source and containing the bacteria’s spread.

The state of Texas has been hit the hardest with 384 cases, New Mexico has 98 people down and Illinois has 100. The general panic led to restaurants and market places to pull off the shelves all the products found on the suspect list and will be considerably hard to find until the authorities give the go signal.

The FDA strongly recommends that especially children, the elderly and all other categories with low immune systems should stay away as much as possible from the vegetables until the situation is contained, in order to avoid a very disturbing period or even worse.

The salmonella bacterium leads to a series of very unpleasant states, ranging from diarrhea and stomach cramps to vomiting and in some cases even death, if not properly handled.