“Strawberries linked to hepatitis A outbreak in 6 states ”

An outbreak of hepatitis A caused by imported frozen strawberries from Egypt has sickened 55 people in six states, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday. Health authorities confirmed 44 total infections in Virginia, where the outbreak first appeared, and additional infections in Maryland (4), West Virginia (4), North Carolina (1), Oregon (1) and Wisconsin (1). Hepatitis A is a viral liver infection that is highly contagious. "Due to the relatively long incubation period for hepatitis A -- 15 to 50 days -- before people start experiencing symptoms, we expect to see more ill people reported in this outbreak," CDC spokeswoman said. Those effected range in age from 15 to 68. Their symptoms began in early May through August, but health authorities did not develop the theory of a common source of infection until this month. Though the classic symptom is jaundice -- a yellowing of the skin or the eyes -- other signs include fever, fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, dark urine and light-colored stools.

In Other News Severe turbulence rocked a Houston-to-London flight over the Atlantic, forcing its pilots to make an emergency landing early Wednesday in Ireland and sending 12 people to a hospital. United Airlines Flight 880 landed unscheduled at western Ireland's Shannon Airport shortly before 6 a.m. local time so that people could receive medical treatment after "severe and unexpected turbulence," the airline said. The shaking began overnight about halfway over the Atlantic while many passengers were asleep, followed by "very, very severe drops in altitude. It's easy to take the modern laptop for granted. Hundreds of millions sell every year. The most affordable models are even less expensive than high-end smartphones. It's near impossible to walk into a coffee shop, workplace or college lecture hall without seeing a laptop. Yet a generation ago, a computer that opened up to reveal a keyboard and screen was a radical and tremendously expensive idea. In 1982, British engineer John Ellenby made waves when his company, Grid Systems, released the Compass, a clamshell-like computer. Ellenby recently died at the age of 75. Today, the Compass's appearance generates snickers. It was heavy enough to be curled like a dumbbell. It had a foldout leg that propped up the back of the machine and helped prevent it from overheating. The Compass's screen resembled a blurry postage stamp. It cost a fortune -- $8,150 -- which is $20,324 in today's dollars.