Months Ending In “R”

There are bad oysters going around:

Seventy-four people are believed to have gotten sick from eating raw oysters from the Pacific Northwest that were sold in New York City restaurants and stores last month, city and federal officials say.

Outbreaks have also been reported in British Columbia, Oregon and Washington State, which alone has recorded at least 100 cases, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

Both the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Food and Drug Administration have warned people not to eat the oysters, which are infected with naturally occurring bacteria that are most prevalent in the summer, when water temperature rises.

In recent months, the F.D.A. said, there has been “an unusual increase in bacterial illness associated with eating raw oysters” from waters of the lower Puget Sound in Washington. Washington State issued a recall of the oysters last week.

A spokesman for the agency said the outbreak, caused by the bacteria virbrio parahaemolyticus, was probably the result of the higher than usual air temperatures on the West Coast.

In healthy people, the symptoms — which include diarrhea, abdominal cramps, nausea, vomiting, fever and chills — usually do not last more than three days.