2 die as health alert declared

Paris - French authorities declared an EU-wide health alert yesterday after a 75-year-old man and a baby died from listeria suspected…

Paris - French authorities declared an EU-wide health alert yesterday after a 75-year-old man and a baby died from listeria suspected to have come from contaminated pork products. The baby was contaminated before birth and another of the six reported listeria cases was in a coma yesterday, authorities said.

The makers of a widely-distributed French pork pate meanwhile withdrew all products. The company sells its products in Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg and Switzerland.