Monthly Archives: October 2013

‘We love Hubers’ Kentucky E. coli cases linked

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The three cases of E. coli on the Indiana-Kentucky border are genetically linked and they all visited Huber’s Orchard and Winery.

Two are Louisville residents, one is from Indiana.  Some parents believe their children got sick from the Huber’s petting zoo, but the health huber'sdepartment won’t confirm that.

Last week, Huber’s released a statement saying an inspection by the Clark County Health department found no link to Huber’s.  But that inspection only focused on food.

The Health Department says the three who got sick each visited Huber’s between September 20th and September 28th.

A parent named Kirby, who doesn’t want his last name used, says his five-year-old daughter Peyton contracted E. coli after touching the animals and had scraped her arm at the petting zoo.  She washed her hands, but still became sick and was at Kosair Children’s Hospital for six days.

When asked how he felt knowing that the three cases were linked to Huber’s Orchard and Winery, Kirby replied, “That’s something we knew from the beginning even though people were saying we were wrong for saying that.  We knew in the hospital from the other cases that were there at the same time.  Does it change my mind about them?  No, we love Huber’s.”

6 sick from E. coli in Marin, Calif., no source IDed

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The Marin County Department of Health and Human Services and Environmental Health Services has concluded its investigation of an outbreak of E. coli last month that sickened six people, four of whom were children.

No single source of the infection has been identified and there have been no new cases since mid-September, according to a press release. There are up to 10 documented cases of E. coli a year in Marin, usually in isolated cases or small clusters.

Two children and two adults were hospitalized, but have since been discharged. 

At least 27 sick with Salmonella from beans at church fundraiser

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White beans were the source of a salmonella outbreak from the annual Bean Day fundraiser sponsored by the Athens-Limestone Foundation on Aging at First Baptist Church in Athens, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health.

“We have confirmed there was salmonella in the patients’ specimen and in the beans,” said Kelly Stevens, director of epidemiology for the state athens.alabama.salm_.bean_.oct_.13-300x214Health Department.

Stevens said her department is conducting more tests, and a final report will be complete in four to six weeks. Danny Yocom, director of labs at the Athens hospital, said Tuesday that 50 people associated with the outbreak came to the hospital’s emergency room, and 13 were admitted. Yocom said 27 patients had cultures that showed the salmonella bacteria. “We didn’t do cultures on every patient who came to the ER with the symptoms,” Yocom said. “And, of course, many more with the symptoms never came to the hospital.” Stevens said the state is not doing a case count. The investigation is centered on cause and circumstances, she said.

The Bean Day fundraiser, which annually draws between 400 and 500 people, has been held about 15 years. Athens Fire and Rescue held the fundraiser until 2010, and then the foundation took over. The $6 plates included white beans, slaw, corn bread, onions and a homemade dessert. Stevens said questionnaires have been given and collected from cooks, servers, volunteers and customers, including those who were sick and those who were not. She said several food plates were collected, and they were found with colonies of bacteria. “Many of the plates were eaten at the fundraiser,” Stevens said. “But a lot of the plates were delivered, and some were eaten a day later. All of these are issues that we are looking at.” Stevens said they are trying to answer questions such as whether there was cross- contamination in a container or from a counter or if a food handler might have been sick.

Jackie Jackson, outgoing chairwoman of the Foundation on Aging, declined comment.

Deadly outbreaks: How medical detectives save lives threatened by killer pandemics, exotic viruses, and drug-resistant parasites

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Atif Kukaswadia writes in this review on Public Health Perspectives blog: Anyone who follows my writing knows that I’m a big proponent of using stories to talk about science. We’ve discussed how you can use science fiction teach science, zombies to talk about disease outbreaks, and my TEDx talk discussed using principles of storytelling in how we discuss science. So when I was asked to review (see disclaimer below) Dr sandwichAlexandra Levitt’s new book “Deadly Outbreaks: How Medical Detectives Save Lives Threatened by Killer Pandemics, Exotic Viruses and Drug-Resistant Parasites,” I jumped on the opportunity.

The CDC has a program known as the Epidemiologic Intelligence Services, where individuals trained in fields such as epidemiology, medicine, statistics and veterinary sciences come together to identify causes of diseases. For an overview of the EIS, check out this review of “Inside the Outbreaks” by Travis Saunders over at Obesity Panacea. The EIS was set up Alexander Langmuir, who has been profiled on the blog, and their work has been instrumental in learning about, and thus containing, disease outbreaks all over the world. Dr Levitt is well positioned to speak on these issues, having worked at the CDC since 1995, although it should be noted that this was written in her free time, not as part of her position at the CDC.

The book is comprised of 7 distinct chapters, each one covering a unique disease outbreak. In an almost “House-ian” style, the EIS agent will hear about an outbreak, go into an area, and then have to uncover what it is that is causing people to get sick, often with very little information to go on. I’m going to keep the details deliberately vague, as part of the joy of reading the book is guessing what is causing the outbreak, and following the train of thought of the investigators.

Another thing I really enjoyed about the book was how Dr Levitt deals with all important stakeholders, and talks about their history. One chapter deals with a Native American population that has undergone a disease outbreak, and does a great job explaining the history of these people. This is very pertinent information, as the problems of going into this community are a direct result of how these communities have been treated historically, and everything from the equipment you bring in, to the name of the disease, has to be cleared by elders and community leaders. The history of a group is something public health practitioners need to be aware of and sensitive to in order to work with these people to identify causes of disease, and this was illustrated well in this book.

Finally, at a more stylistic level, a conscious decision the author makes is to provide context for the characters. For example, in Chapter 1 the “protagonist” is eagerly anticipating her wedding, and at one point goes for dinner and discusses this with a colleague while talking about the case at hand. In a later chapter, the author describes Dr Stacy Holzbauer, a veterinarian, as someone whose “plan was to become a Sopranos_season3_episode01large-animal veterianian, marry a cowboy, live on a ranch on the Great Plains, and raise cowboys,” a vivid and charming description. While she did become a veterinarian, she then pursued a MPH and now does brilliant public health work. This makes the characters that much more fleshed out and human, rather than being 2-dimensional and alien, a welcome respite from the socially awkward, comically inept, and often evil, scientist of television and film. At points I found this transition jarring, but it adds to the overall feel of the book, and I think helps the book connect with the general public.

And the general public, especially those with an interest in public health, is the target audience. I would recommend this book to those interested in learning more about public health, both from an infectious disease epidemiology.WATER PUMP3_Page_4standpoint, as well as from a practical, i.e. how do we actually investigate disease outbreaks, standpoint. It’s written for a lay audience, and avoids jargon and delving too far into statistics or biology, which makes it easy and straightforward to follow. If you’re considering pursuing an MPH and want to do “shoe leather epidemiology,” it’s a must read.

Consumers can wait; California cantaloupe board promotes food safety via twitter — to industry

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I don’t understand a lot about computers, social media, instagram and whatever the next fad is; but I do know to hang out with people who can tell the message person (me) what medium to use and how.

I’ve always been a fan of Marshall McLuhan and read all his impenetrable stuff 30 years ago. The University of Toronto professor coined his famous, marshall_mcluhan_woody_allenthe medium is the message, phrase in his 1964 book, Understanding Media. The cameo he did in Woody Allen’s 1977 movie, Annie Hall, where McLuhan tells some pompous professor that he doesn’t understand his theories at all and is not qualified to teach, is so … apt.

Today, U.S. producer groups like the California Cantaloupe Advisory Board want to battle foodborne illness through a social media campaign.

According to The Packer, the board will work to build its Twitter following at the upcoming Produce Marketing Association Fresh Summit in New Orleans.

The campaign will be introduced to consumers next season after the board has gained a following in the produce industry.

It’s social media; go straight to consumers.

 

Nosestretcher alert: NPR discovers food safety is controlled by something other than government

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I love listening to state-sponsored jazz National Public Radio when I need to go to sleep. But not at 9 a.m.

That’s 7 p.m. EST when this amazing discovery was unveiled for listening sponges: “Food safety is controlled by forces other than the government.”

The analysis presented by NPR is so superficial, I wonder, why do they colbert_soccer(3)keep getting government money during a government shutdown?

“There’s this system of third-party audits that keeps Americans safe, even during a government shutdown.”

As we wrote last year:

• food safety audits and inspections are a key component of the nation’s food safety system and their use will expand in the future, for both domestic and imported foodstuffs, but recent failures can be emotionally, physically and financially devastating to the victims and the businesses involved;

• many outbreaks involve firms that have had their food production systems verified and received acceptable ratings from food safety auditors or government inspectors;

• while inspectors and auditors play an active role in overseeing compliance, the burden for food safety lies primarily with food producers;

• there are lots of limitations with audits and inspections, just like with restaurants inspections, but with an estimated 48 million sick each year in the U.S., the question should be, how best to improve food safety?

• audit reports are only useful if the purchaser or  food producer reviews the results, understands the risks addressed by the standards and makes risk-reduction decisions based on the results;

• there appears to be a disconnect between what auditors provide (a snapshot) and what buyers believe they are doing (a full verification or certification of product and process);

• third-party audits are only one performance indicator and need to be supplemented with microbial testing, second-party audits of suppliers and the in-house capacity to meaningfully assess the results of audits and inspections;

• companies who blame the auditor or inspector for outbreaks of foodborne illness should also blame themselves;

• assessing food-handling practices of staff through internal observations, externally-led evaluations, and audit and inspection results can provide indicators of a food safety culture; and,

• the use of audits to help create, improve, and maintain a genuine food safety culture holds the most promise in preventing foodborne illness and safeguarding public health.

Audits and inspections are never enough: A critique to enhance food safety

Food Control

D.A. Powell, S. Erdozain, C. Dodd, R. Costa, K. Morley, B.J. Chapman

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956713512004409?v=s5

Abstract

Internal and external food safety audits are conducted to assess the safety and quality of food including on-farm production, manufacturing practices, sanitation, and hygiene. Some auditors are direct stakeholders that are employed by food establishments to conduct internal audits, while other auditors may represent the interests of a second-party purchaser or a third-party auditing agency. Some buyers conduct their own audits or additional testing, while some buyers trust the results of third-party audits or inspections. Third-party auditors, however, use various food safety audit standards and most do not have a vested interest in the products being sold. Audits are conducted under a proprietary standard, while food safety inspections are generally conducted within a legal framework. There have been many foodborne illness outbreaks linked to food processors that have passed third-party audits and inspections, raising questions about the utility of both. Supporters argue third-party audits are a way to ensure food safety in an era of dwindling economic resources. Critics contend that while external audits and inspections can be a valuable tool to help ensure safe food, such activities represent only a snapshot in time. This paper identifies limitations of food safety inspections and audits and provides recommendations for strengthening the system, based on developing a strong food safety culture, including risk-based verification steps, throughout the food safety system.

968 hospitalized: Salmonella found in Vietnam factory canteen food

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Tainted food was concluded as the culprit in the hospitalization of nearly 1,000 workers at a South Korean-owned garment company in the Mekong Delta Province of Tien Giang last week.  

Dan Tri online newspaper quoted the Vietnam Food Administration as saying on Thursday that Salmonella was found in some of the food wondo-vina-co-ltd-is-a-100-percent-south-korean-owned-company-that-produces-apparel-according-to-the-victims-after-having-lunch-at-the-company-yesterday-many-of-them-developed-belly-pains-vomitin-4173samples taken from lunch served at Wondo Vina Company last Thursday.  

Wondo Vina workers started having symptoms like stomachache, vomiting, headache, diarrhea, and fever around midnight Thursday, and the next morning 968 of them were admitted to Cho Gao District’s general hospital, including 171 in serious condition. A team of health workers was sent to the company to check and treat another 150 workers who had slight symptoms.  Half the patients were discharged later that same day, and no fatality has been reported so far. 

Grades come to Louisville food trucks; owners applaud

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Max Balliet’s Holey Moley food truck has been inspected six times this year, passing the health department review without fail. Still, he hears the uninformed slights and innuendo — food trucks are dirty, messy, fly-by-night grease pits, potential salmonella breeders on wheels.

That’s why nobody is happier than Balliet that Louisville is requiring the city’s 49 registered food truck vendors to post health grades in their rest.inspec.grade.louisvillewindows.

“Being able to display our score is a good thing,” he said Monday. “Right now there’s no way for us to prove we’ve been inspected at all.”

Louisville’s Department of Public Health and Wellness has always required food trucks to follow the same health regulations as restaurants. But, until now, they haven’t had to participate in the city’s ABC Food Placard Program, the system that displays brightly colored letter grades based on cleanliness and food handling.

Food truck say the visible grades will help their credibility. “It’s going to be way better for business, for sure,” said Robb Ross, owner of French Indo-Canada Food Truck. Customers such as Donnie Guinn, who bought lunch Monday from Urban Kitchen at Bardstown Road and Midland Avenue, predicted the new rule would improve food quality in Louisville. “I think it’s a good thing, man,” he said. Skip Brewer agreed, saying he liked the idea of being able to see a score in the window the moment he walked up to order his food. “If every other place in Louisville has to have it, so should the food trucks.”

Device speeds concentration step in food-pathogen detection

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Researchers have developed a system that concentrates foodborne salmonella and other pathogens faster than conventional methods by using hollow thread-like fibers that filter out the cells, representing a potential new tool for speedier detection.

The machine, called a continuous cell concentration device, could make it possible to routinely analyze food or water samples to screen for devicespeedspathogens within a single work shift at food processing plants.

“This approach begins to address the critical need for the food industry for detecting food pathogens within six hours or less,” said Michael Ladisch, a distinguished professor of agricultural and biological engineering at Purdue University. “Ideally, you want to detect foodborne pathogens in one work shift, from start to finish, which means extracting the sample, concentrating the cells and detection.”

Findings are detailed in a research paper to appear in November in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology. The paper was authored by doctoral student Xuan Li; LORRE research scientist Eduardo Ximenes; postdoctoral research associate Mary Anne Roshni Amalaradjou; undergraduate student Hunter B. Vibbert; senior research engineer Kirk Foster; engineering resources manager Jim Jones; microbiologist Xingya Liu; Arun K. Bhunia, a professor of food microbiology; and Ladisch.  Findings showed the system was able to concentrate inoculated salmonella by 500 to 1,000 times the original concentration in test samples.

Restaurants in China spike meals with opiates to keep diners coming back?

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Two south Chinese restaurants were found to be serving their food with poppy seed powder–which contains addictive substances like codeine and morphine–to ensure diners would come back for more.

Officials with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in Guangzhou Province checked 70 restaurants last year, and found that two were using poppy-seedsmarinade sachets containing poppy powder, Yangcheng Evening News reported.

Zhan Ke, who works for the Guangzhou FDA Restaurant Division, told the paper that heavily seasoned or aromatic sauces may contain poppy seeds. In their spot check, the inspectors targeted soup base, home-made chilli sauce, brine, and curry sauce.  Tests revealed several substances, that could damage the digestive and nervous systems, including codeine, morphine, papaverine, noscapine, and thebaine.

In 2012, inspectors in Jiangsu Province sampled over 400 hotpot soup bases, and found 10 percent contained poppy seed ingredients, according to a report by Oriental Daily earlier this year.  Also, many seasoning stores in Beijing sell poppy seeds and many noodle shops and barbeque stands were big buyers.