Category Archives: Email

Pregnant mum gets Salmonella at same hotel where girl ‘got E. coli’ and later died

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A pregnant mum has told of her fears for her unborn baby after contracting salmonella at the same hotel where a mum claims her two-year-old daughter contracted E. coli and later died.

Emma Broadhurst was six months pregnant when she flew out to Turkey with friends for a 7-night stay at the Crystal Sunset Luxury Resort and Spa, east of the city of Antayla, at the start of September.

But, according to Andy Rudd of The Mirror, within days of arriving she fell unwell suffering from chronic diarrhea and became dehydrated and lost weight.

Just over 24 hours later her best friend’s seven-year-old son, Kailan, also fell ill with diarrhea and on their return to the UK his mum, Emma McComb, fell ill and Kailan was left ‘screaming in agony’ and projectile vomiting.

All three, who shared a room while on holiday, were then diagnosed with salmonella poisoning after stool samples were sent for testing by their local GP, claims Emma.

The friends stayed in the same hotel where two-year-old Allie Birchall and her family holidayed before little Allie was taken ill before passing away having contracted E. coli.

All members of her family, from Wigan, Greater Manchester, suffered from gastric symptoms including stomach cramps and diarrhoea during their 10-day stay with Jet 2.

Allie’s condition became so severe she was rushed to hospital after the family returned to the UK.

Her parents had to make the heartbreaking decision to switch off her life support on August 3.

Girl, 4, left fighting for life after getting E. coli O157 on Isle of Wight trip

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A four-year-old girl was left fighting for her life after contracting the deadly E.coli infection after a trip to the Isle of Wight.

Isla Grainger had to be put in an induced coma in intensive care after the harmful bug caused her kidneys to fail.

Pippa Allen-Kinross of the Mirror reports Isla spent 17 days in hospital and is now recovering at home, but is still not well enough to go to school.

She began to have diarrhoea and sickness after a weekend trip to the Isle of Wight with her mum Lauren Aspery, 21, and mum’s partner Lewis Keith.

The family visited a petting zoo, arcades and a beach in Sandown on the island before Isla became unwell.

But, as yet, they do not know where the infection came from.

Mum Lauren, who lives in Whiteley near Fareham, also had painful stomach aches and nausea.

After Isla stopped eating and struggled to go to the toilet for three days, Lauren took her daughter to the emergency department at Southampton General Hospital.

The little girl was rushed into emergency surgery to insert a catheter and begin urgent dialysis after tests revealed she had E.coli O157.

Medics realised the E.coli had developed into hemolytic uremic syndrome, affecting Isla’s blood cells and vessels and resulting in kidney failure.

She had to undergo surgery to remove a twisted catheter and was later moved to intensive care and placed in an induced coma.

Devastated Lauren was left terrified she would lose her daughter, as Isla’s condition quickly became a “matter of life or death”.

She said: “It was terrifying. I thought the worst and that we were going to lose our little girl.

  “I really believed this was just a bad case of sickness.

“The doctor took a breath and told us that ‘Isla is very, very poorly, much more sick than we thought’.

For risk modelling nerds: Deli meat

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Fun observation: Most people think it’s safer to buy deli meat or cold cuts, fresh at the counter, than the pre-packaged stuff, which is probably safer because it contains antimicrobials (in the U.S.) and doesn’t come into contact with all that slicer shit at the deli counter.

Follow up: What’s the difference between a clean and a deep clean? Phallic hyperbole.

Ready-to-eat (RTE) deli meats sliced at retail are predicted to cause 83% of deli meat-associated listeriosis cases annually. While Listeria monocytogenes is commonly found in delis, environmental prevalence varies by store (0–40%).

A deep clean sanitation standard operating procedure (SSOP) executed by a third-party cleaning service immediately reduced L. monocytogenes prevalence in delis, but reductions were not sustained over time. The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy of a L. monocytogenes predictive risk model and a subsequent deep-clean SSOP (deep clean) conducted by store employees and management complemented with training and facilities improvements all aimed to reduce L. monocytogenes prevalence in stores with known high L. monocytogenes prevalence and evidence of persistence.

Fifty delis among six states were screened using a predictive logistic regression model that estimates the probability of high L. monocytogenes prevalence in a deli. The model identified 13 stores with potentially high L. monocytogenes prevalence; seven stores were confirmed and enrolled for further study. Retail employees executed deep clean; additional interventions (e.g., facilities improvements, training) were incorporated in stores. Environmental samples (n = 20) were collected immediately before and after, and for six months post-deep clean. Deep cleans immediately reduced L. monocytogenes prevalence in six of seven stores tested.

A total of 21/138 (15.2%) samples before and 8/139 (5.8%) samples after deep-cleaning were positive for L. monocytogenes, with a marginal 16.0% decrease on non-food-contact surfaces (NFCS) immediately after deep clean (p = 0.0309, αadj = 0.0125) and a marginal 10.8% on NFCS during follow-up (p = 0.0337, αadj = 0.0125). Employee executed deep cleans with training, education, and maintenance programs can reduce environmental L. monocytogenes prevalence in retail delis, a pivotal part of preventing subsequent cross-contamination to RTE deli meats.

Predictive risk models combined with employee-and management-implemented SSOPs identified and reduced listeria monocytogenes prevalence in retail delis

Food Control

Sophie Tongyu Wua1, Susan R.Hammonsa1m Jingjin Wanga, Clara Assisia, Brittany DiPietrob, Haley F.Olivera

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2019.106942

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956713519305316

71 now sick from Salmonella in Sweden linked to tomatoes

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Outbreak News Today reports Swedish health authorities, or Folkhalsomyndigheten are reporting 17 additional Salmonella Typhimurium cases in the current outbreak, bringing the total outbreak cases to 71 since August.

The Swedish National Food Agency and the Public Health Agency continue to investigate the outbreak to identify the source of the infection. The investigation shows that small tomatoes are the likely source of the outbreak. The tomatoes are no longer left in grocery stores, the outbreak has subsided and the risk of being infected is very small.

Uh-huh.

Wish I’d had a Halloween like this: Pennsylvania police urge parents to check for THC-laced Nerds Rope edibles

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Danielle Garrand of CBS reports that parents have been encouraged to check their children’s Halloween candy for years to ensure the tasty treats are safe for kids to eat. This spooky season, Pennsylvania police are urging caregivers to be on the lookout once again — for drug-laced edibles.

The Johnstown Police Department issued a warning on their Facebook page Thursday morning after authorities said they discovered “Nerds Rope edibles containing 400mg of THC” while fulfilling a search warrant in Stoneycreek Township. The department also recently seized 60 pounds of marijuana from the area, reports CBS Pittsburgh.

“During this Halloween, we urge parents to be ever vigilant in checking their children’s candy before allowing them to consume those treats,” wrote the department. “Drug laced edibles are package like regular candy and may be hard to distinguish from the real candy.”

The authorities included photos of the edibles labeled as “Nerds Rope” with warning labels dubbing the items “for medical use only.” The label also urged those who may use the product to “keep out of reach of children and animals.”

The candy manufacturer that produces Nerds, Ferrara Candy Company, issued a statement saying it is “working with the relevant authorities.”

Food porn dangers: Liquid nitrogen shouldn’t be in drinking water

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Shortly after dinosaurs roamed the earth, I worked in a lab and we used a lot of liquid nitrogen to preserve the now dead plant tissues and their more interesting cells and components before we began our devious extractions.

That was the mid-1980s (we also used a lot of radioactive P-32 to mark DNA; prehistoric times).

Now food porn chefs use liquid nitrogen like a dipping area.

Maxine Shen of the Daily Mail reports a Florida woman is suing a hotel after she drank liquid nitrogen a waiter poured into her water glass, resulting in her needing to have her gallbladder and part of her stomach removed.  

Except, wouldn’t it immediately freeze the water?

Stacey Wagers, 45, and a friend were celebrating her birthday with a dinner at Don Cesar Hotel’s Maritana Grille restaurant in St. Pete Beach in November 18 when she said she needed to be rushed to hospital after the incident. 

Wagers told NBC News that she and her friend had just finished eating when they saw a waiter pouring a liquid over a dessert that made it ‘smoke’ at a table nearby. 

Wagers said that her friend told the waiter that the smokey effect looked cool, so he poured what turned out to be liquid nitrogen – a freezing agent – into the women’s water glasses. 

‘Of course I didn’t think it was dangerous at all,’ Wagers said, noting that the waiter ‘had just poured it on a dessert’.

When Wagers and her friend drank their liquid nitrogen-laced water, Wagers said she immediately fell sick. 

‘There was an explosion in my chest,’ Wagers said, adding that it felt like she was dying and that she was unable to speak. 

Wagers was then rushed to the hospital, where she had surgery to remove her gallbladder, as well as portions of her stomach which had been burned by the liquid nitrogen. She also had to stay in the ICU for several days. 

In August 2018, the FDA issued an alert warning customers and retailers ‘of the potential for serious injury from eating, drinking, or handling food products prepared by adding liquid nitrogen at the point of sale, immediately before consumption’.

‘Liquid nitrogen, although non-toxic, can cause severe damage to skin and internal organs if mishandled or accidentally ingested due to the extremely low temperatures it can maintain,’ the FDA added.  

Wagers’ lawsuit stated that she is suing both the hotel and the food and beverage director of more than $15,000 each and is seeking a jury trial.

Listeria kills three in two years, source traced to Dutch cold meat factory

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Three people have died and one woman has had a miscarriage after eating cold meat contaminated with listeria, the public health institute RIVM said last Friday.

top view of round slices of smoked pork loin ham in transparent plastic tray packaging isolated on white background

Dutch News reports all are thought to have become ill after eating meat products from the Offerman company over the past two years, the agency said. In total, at least 20 people have become ill after eating Offerman cold cuts. The company issued a health warning last Friday and Jumbo, which stocks 135 different products from Offerman, ordered an immediate recall. Aldi too has recalled its Offerman products, which were also widely sold to company canteens.

The source of the infection was traced by the RIVM and product safety board NVWA after an analysis of the different types of listeria infection this week. ‘It has only been recently possible to use this technique and without it, we would not have been able to identify the source,’ the RIVM said.

The factory where the bacteria originates is located in Aalsmeer and has been closed pending a thorough clean-up, the AD reported last Friday afternoon. According to broadcaster NOS the NVWA had ordered Offerman to take extra hygiene measures because there were suspicions that something was going wrong. ‘But this would appear not to have done the job,’ a NVWA spokesman told the broadcaster.

Listeria is particularly dangerous to the elderly and pregnant women and can cause miscarriages. Every year about 80 cases of listeria are reported to the RIVM.

Crazy (noro) train: ‘I was throwing up everywhere’: Sydney woman hospitalized in mass gastro outbreak on luxury train

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Sydney woman Lesley Thompson was enthusiastic about her journey across the heart of Australia when she stepped onto the Indian Pacific train with her sister Pam last month.

But in less than 24 hours the elderly woman was being rushed to hospital in an ambulance, struck down with a “vile” case of gastro that began to cause trouble with her heart.

Carrie Fellner of the Sydney Morning Herald reports Ms Thompson is one of at least 100 passengers to have fallen ill in a mass outbreak of norovirus, a form of gastroenteritis, on the Indian Pacific train in recent weeks.

The 80-year-old, from Greenwich on Sydney’s north shore, was relieved she was in good health with no pre-existing heart problems, and has been able to recover from her ordeal.

The Indian Pacific train travels from Sydney to Perth via Adelaide, crossing the Nullarbor Plain on its 4352-kilometre journey.

More than 100 people have become ill with gastro after travelling on the Indian Pacific train.

The first case linked to the train was recorded on September 8 and the latest case was identified on Monday September 30.

Ms Thompson has been unable to get through to health authorities and does not know if they have counted her among the two passengers reported as requiring hospitalisation.

She boarded the train on September 11 in Sydney and fell ill during a stopover in the South Australian town of Hahndorf the following day.

“I was throwing up everywhere,” she said. “It was vile.”

Ms Thompson is yet to receive a refund on the ticket cost of nearly $10,000, and was initially told she had to pay a “curtailment fee” for abandoning the train during the stopover.

A spokesperson for Great Southern Rail, which operates the service, said it was still working through compensation options for affected guests on a case-by-case basis.

The Indian Pacific remains in operation but SA Health said it had the power to take the train off the tracks if the situation escalates.

“The health and wellbeing of guests is paramount and we have acted quickly to respond to this situation,” a spokesperson said.

Uh-huh.

(Not an Ozzy fan so I go for this train song)

24 now sick from shiga-toxin producing E. coli in Newfoundland and Labrador

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Newfoundland and Labrador’s provincial health department is advising residents of an outbreak of E. coli bacteria.

There have been 22 cases of E.coli confirmed in the province, according to an advisory issued last Friday afternoon.

Another two suspected cases have since emerged.

Dr. Janice Fitzgerald said some of the cases are connected to an advisory issued by Memorial University last week, saying Eastern Health was investigating reports of students experiencing gastrointestinal illness.

The university said Wednesday that test results indicated one student living in residence “may have contracted the E. coli bacteria” and 21 students had reported similar symptoms.

Fitzgerald said it’s too early in the investigation to determine a cause of the outbreak.

Raw is risky: Eating raw pig liver from Singapore market may increase risk of hepatitis E

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Danielle Ann of Alvinology reports researchers at the Singapore General Hospital have found definite similarities between the virus strains of Hepatitis E virus or (HEV) in pig liver and human liver.

This means that ingesting raw pork liver could mean you’re ingesting a strain of HEV that’s similar enough to human HEV that it could cause you get infected.

The same report said that people who have contracted HEV has risen steadily over the years. While the researchers could not say if the ingestion of raw pig liver is the main cause of the rise in cases, many local dishes feature this ingredient and do not cook the meat thoroughly.

The same report said that you can acquire the disease from eating contaminated food or substances. Ingesting water that is laced with the disease or accidentally drinking water that has trace amounts of faeces. Eating raw or half-cooked meat that is infected can also transmit the virus to you.