A Fulton County resident has been sickened by contaminated tomatoes, bringing the total reported cases of salmonella saintpaul in Georgia to eight, according to health authorities.

The unusual strain of salmonella bacteria is blamed for at least 229 illnesses across the United States.

No other information about the latest Georgia case was available. Epidemiologists are still investigating, said April Majors, a spokeswoman for the Fulton County Department of Health and Wellness.

The first seven cases reported in Georgia, all linked to the outbreak last week, involved patients ages 3 to 53 who first reported illness between May 20 and May 30, said Taka Wiley, a spokeswoman for the state Division of Public Health. Six of the seven lived in metro Atlanta.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has advised Americans to avoid round, red tomatoes and Roma and plum tomatoes unless they're on a list of growing regions cleared in the outbreak. Tomatoes grown in Georgia and north Florida have been cleared, along with those for more than three dozen other states or countries. A complete list of approved growing regions is at www.fda.gov.

That list was recently updated to include New Mexico, one of the first states where the outbreak was detected, and Baja California, the only region in Mexico that has been cleared. When the outbreak began, most tomatoes available in the United States were grown in Florida and Mexico.

Symptoms of salmonella include diarrhea, nausea, stomach cramping and fever. Illness usually occurs within 12 to 72 hours and lasts four to seven days. The Georgia cases were linked to the outbreak through laboratory testing that matched the strain of bacteria they carried to the one implicated in the other illnesses.

Cherry and grape tomatoes, and those sold on the vine, have not been linked to the outbreak.

Some retailers and restaurants are returning tomatoes to shelves and menus. Publix and Kroger have restocked with tomatoes from approved regions. McDonald's, which eliminated sliced tomaotes from its sandwiches nearly two weeks ago, plans to bring them back in the next week.