The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has published the Year 4 report for the UK retail chicken survey which took place between August 2017 and July 2018. Samples were collected every quarter but after the first quarter only minor retailers were tested. The UK’s top nine retailers have carried out their own sampling since September 2017.
The report found that high level campylobacter contamination in UK chickens has decreased considerably, but remains high in smaller retailers, independents and butchers.
Rebecca Sudworth, Director of Policy at the Food Standards Agency, said:
“Retailers have achieved significant reductions in levels of campylobacter contamination since the retail chicken survey began in 2014. The FSA will continue to engage with industry and particularly smaller retailers, butchers and independents to build on this progress.” …
Make sure chicken is cooked thoroughly and steaming hot all the way through before serving. Cut into the thickest part of the meat and check that it is steaming hot with no pink meat and that the juices run clear.
Use a tip-sensitive digital thermometer and stick it in.
Health Times reports Australian investigators spent months trying to recreate dodgy relish that gave nearly 40 people gastro at an exclusive Melbourne Cricket Ground luncheon on Anzac Day.
Thirty-seven patrons and a staff member were left distressed and light-headed, with some fainting and going to hospital, after eating the quince and fig jam relish with barberries at the Essendon Football Club’s president lunch on April 25.
“It was a pretty dramatic foodborne outbreak,’ Victoria’s chief health officer, Brett Sutton, told reporters on Tuesday after a three-month investigation into the incident.
Rabbit, chicken and pork terrine served with the relish was initially suspected to be the culprit
But after 109 interviews trawling through everything guests and staff members ate that day, the investigation found the relish was almost certainly to blame. “In the fashion of a true foodborne mystery, it was the relish in the (MCG’s) Olympic Room at high noon on Anzac Day,” Dr Sutton said.
The investigation took three months in part because investigators were trying to recreate the relish under various conditions, but they were unsuccessful.
“Dehydrated barberries, barberries with boiling water, the relish refrigerated for three days, the relish left out, none of it allowed sufficient growth of bacteria that would have caused that illness,’ Dr Sutton said.
“I suspect that something in that relish, barberries or the fig jam, carried a toxin at the time and the boiling water that was used in the processing wasn’t sufficient to kill it.”
Seven people were taking to hospital after being struck down by the gastro but none required admission.
Mia De Graaf of the Daily Mail writes a 78-year-old Texas man died after an agonizing two-week battling against flesh-eating bacteria he contracted on a fishing trip last month.
Jerry Sebek, of San Marcos, did not get in the water, did not have any open wounds, and did not have any health issues that would weaken his immune system.
And yet, hours after returning from Turtle Bay on June 13, he became delirious, vomiting, and struggling to breathe.
His daughter Kim took him to a clinic, where doctors said it looked like heat stroke.
But the next morning, he was taken to hospital, where he tested positive for vibrio, an aggressive type of bacteria that eats away at muscle and tissue.
His right arm, where the infection started, was ‘skinned like a deer,’ Kim told SanAntonio.com.
Despite amputating his arm and leg, and putting him in a medically-induced coma, doctors could not defeat the infection.
‘I’m still a little shocked and in disbelief,’ Kim told the site.
‘Dad was a wonderful family man who loved to hunt and fish and do things out in the water.’
She added: ‘We’ve been coming here [to Turtle Bay] for years and this is just an unfortunate thing that happened.’
My aunt got sick from Cyclospora in some basil-based thingy in Florida, in 2005.
She was sick for weeks.
On June 12, 1996, Ontario’s chief medical officer, Dr. Richard Schabas, issued a public health advisory on the presumed link between consumption of California strawberries and an outbreak of diarrheal illness among some 40 people in the Metro Toronto area. The announcement followed a similar statement from the Department of Health and Human Services in Houston, Texas, who were investigating a cluster of 18 cases of Cyclospora illness among oil executives.
Dr. Schabas advised consumers to wash California berries “very carefully” before eating them, and recommended that people with compromised immune systems avoid them entirely. He also stated that Ontario strawberries, which were just beginning to be harvested, were safe for consumption. Almost immediately, people in Ontario stopped buying strawberries. Two supermarket chains took California berries off their shelves, in response to pressure from consumers. The market collapsed so thoroughly that newspapers reported truck drivers headed for Toronto with loads of berries being directed, by telephone, to other markets.
However, by June 20, 1996, discrepancies began to appear in the link between California strawberries and illness caused by the parasite, Cyclospora, even though the number of reported illnesses continued to increase across North America. Texas health officials strengthened their assertion that California strawberries were the cause of the outbreak, while scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said there were not yet ready to identify a food vehicle for the outbreak. On June 27, 1996, the New York City Health Department became the first in North America to publicly state that raspberries were also suspected in the outbreak of Cyclospora.
By July 18, 1996, the CDC declared that raspberries from Guatemala — which had been sprayed with pesticides mixed with water that could have been contaminated with human sewage containing Cyclospora — were the likely source of the Cyclospora outbreak, which ultimately sickened about 1,000 people across North America. Guatemalan health authorities and producers have vigorously refuted the charges. The California Strawberry Commission estimates it lost $15 million to $20 million in reduced strawberry sales.
Cyclospora cayetanensis is a recently characterised coccidian parasite; the first known cases of infection in humans were diagnosed in 1977. Before 1996, only three outbreaks of Cyclospora infection had been reported in the United States. Cyclospora is normally associated with warm, Latin American countries with poor sanitation.
One reason for the large amount of uncertainty in the 1996 Cyclospora outbreak is the lack of effective testing procedures for this organism. To date, Cyclospora oocysts have not been found on any strawberries, raspberries or other fruit, either from North America or Guatemala. That does not mean that cyclospora was absent; it means the tests are unreliable and somewhat meaningless. FDA, CDC and others are developing standardized methods for such testing and are currently evaluating their sensitivity.
The initial, and subsequent, links between Cyclospora and strawberries or raspberries were therefore based on epidemiology, a statistical association between consumption of a particular food and the onset of disease. For example, the Toronto outbreak was first identified because some 35 guests attending a May 11, 1996 wedding reception developed the same severe, intestinal illness, seven to 10 days after the wedding, and subsequently tested positive for cyclospora. Based on interviews with those stricken, health authorities in Toronto and Texas concluded that California strawberries were the most likely source. However, attempts to remember exactly what one ate two weeks earlier is an extremely difficult task; and larger foods, like strawberries, are recalled more frequently than smaller foods, like raspberries. Ontario strawberries were never implicated in the outbreak.
Once epidemiology identifies a probable link, health officials have to decide whether it makes sense to warn the public. In retrospect, the decision seems straightforward, but there are several possibilities that must be weighed at the time. If the Ontario Ministry of Health decided to warn people that eating imported strawberries might be connected to Cyclospora infection, two outcomes were possible: if it turned out that strawberries are implicated, the ministry has made a smart decision, warning people against something that could hurt them; if strawberries were not implicated, then the ministry has made a bad decision with the result that strawberry growers and sellers will lose money and people will stop eating something that is good for them. If the ministry decides not to warn people, another two outcomes are possible: if strawberries were implicated, then the ministry has made a bad decision and people may get a parasitic infection they would have avoided had they been given the information (lawsuits usually follow); if strawberries were definitely not implicated then nothing happens, the industry does not suffer and the ministry does not get in trouble for not telling people. Research is currently being undertaken to develop more rigorous, scientifically-tested guidelines for informing the public of uncertain risks.
But in Sarnia (Ontario, Canada) they got a lot of sick people who attended the Big Sisters of Sarnia-Lambton Chef’s Challenge on May 12, 2010.
Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, who has a lot of titles and once called me at 5 a.m. to tell me I was an asshole (maybe not the exact words, but the sentiment) and chair of the Holstein Blue-Ribbon Panel on the Prevention of Foodborne Cyclospora Outbreaks writes that the 1996 cyclosporiasis outbreak in the United States and Canada associated with the late spring harvest of imported Guatemalan-produced raspberries was an early warning to public health officials and the produce industry that the international sourcing of produce means that infectious agents once thought of as only causing traveler’s diarrhea could now infect at home. The public health investigation of the 1996 outbreak couldn’t identify how, when, where, or why the berries became contaminated with Cyclospora cayetanensis.
The investigation results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1997. I was asked to write an editorial to accompany the investigation report.2 In my editorial, I noted the unknowns surrounding the C. cayetanensis contamination. The 1997 spring harvest of Guatemalan raspberries was allowed to be imported into both the United States and Canada—and again, a large outbreak of cyclosporiasis occurred. As in the 1996 outbreak, no source for the contamination of berries was found. Later in 1997, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) prohibited the importation of future spring harvests of Guatemalan raspberries until a cause for the contamination could be demonstrated and corrective actions taken. While the FDA did not permit the 1998 importation of the raspberries into the United States, the berries continued to be available in Canada. Outbreaks linked to raspberries occurred in Ontario in May 1998. When the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-led investigative team published its 1997 outbreak findings in the Annals of Internal Medicine, 3 I was again asked to write an accompanying editorial.4 As I had done in my previous editorial, I highlighted how little we know about the factors associated with the transmission Cyclospora on produce and how to prevent it.
Unfortunately, the state of the art for preventing foodborne, produce-associated cyclosporiasis had changed little since the 1996 outbreak despite the relatively frequent occurrence of such outbreaks.
Thirty-four years after that first Guatemalan raspberry-associated outbreak — and a year after produce-associated cyclosporiasis outbreaks that were linked to U.S.-grown produce — there has been a major leap in prevention, yet the outbreaks still happen.
Foodborne outbreaks of cyclosporiasis have been reported in the United States since the mid-1990s and have been linked to various types of imported fresh produce, including raspberries, basil, snow peas, mesclun lettuce, and cilantro; no commercially frozen produce has been implicated to date. U.S. foodborne outbreaks of cyclosporiasis that occurred before 2000 were summarized previously, as were the major documented outbreaks in 2013 and 2014. Foodborne outbreaks during the 18-year period of 2000–2017 are summarized here.
The table provides information about 39 reported foodborne outbreaks of cyclosporiasis that occurred in the United States during 2000–2017; the total case count was 1,730. No outbreaks were reported in 2003, 2007, or 2010. Overall, a median of two outbreaks were reported per year, with a median of 19 cases per outbreak (range, 3 to 582 cases). Although the outbreaks occurred during 8 different months (December through July), the peak months were May, June, and July. As indicated in the table, a food vehicle of infection was identified (or suspected) for 17 of the 39 outbreaks.
Identifying the particular food item/ingredient that caused an outbreak of cyclosporiasis can be very challenging—for example, if fresh produce was served as a garnish or topping or if several types of produce were mixed together. CDC and other agencies are working to develop and validate molecular typing methods that could distinguish among different strains of the parasite Cyclospora cayetanensis that causes cyclosporiasis. In the future, such tools could help link cases of cyclosporiasis to each other and to particular types of produce, which could help public health officials investigate and prevent cases and outbreaks of Cyclospora infection.
Table: Summary of U.S. foodborne outbreaks of cyclosporiasis, 2000–2017
Year(s)*
Month(s)*
Jurisdiction(s)*
No. of cases†
Food vehicle and source, if identified‡
2000
May
Georgia
19
Raspberries and/or blackberries (suspected)
2000
June
Pennsylvania
54
Raspberries
2001
January–February
Florida
39
2001
January
New York City
3
2001–02
December–January
Vermont
22
Raspberries (likely)
2002
April–May
Massachusetts
8
2002
June
New York
14
2004
February
Texas
38
2004
February
Illinois
57
Basil (likely)
2004
May
Tennessee
12
2004
May–June
Pennsylvania
96
Snow peas from Guatemala ⁂
2005
March–May
Florida
582 ¶
Basil from Peru
2005
May
South Carolina
6
2005
April
Massachusetts
58
2005
May
Massachusetts
16
2005
June
Connecticut
30
Basil (suspected)
2006
June
Minnesota
14
2006
June
New York
20
2006
July
Georgia
3
2008
March
Wisconsin
4
Sugar snap peas (likely) ⁂
2008
July
California
45 ¶
Raspberries and/or blackberries (likely)
2009
June
District of Columbia
34
2011
June
Florida
12
2011
July
Georgia
88**
2012
June–July
Texas
16
2013††
June
Iowa, Nebraska, and neighboring states
162
Bagged salad mix from Mexico
2013††
June–July
Texas
38
Cilantro from Mexico
2013
July
Wisconsin
8
Berry salad (suspected)
2014
June
Michigan
14
2014‡‡
June–July
Texas
26
Cilantro from Mexico
2014
July
South Carolina
13
2015
May–July
Georgia, Texas, and Wisconsin
90
Cilantro from Mexico
2016
June–July
Texas
6¶¶
Carrots or green cabbage (suspected)
2017
May
Florida
6
Berries (suspected)
2017
May–July
Texas
38***
Scallions (i.e., green onions)
2017
June
Michigan
29
2017
June
Tennessee
4†††
2017
June
Connecticut
3
2017
July
Florida
3‡‡‡
* The entries in the first three columns refer to the known or likely year(s), month(s), and jurisdiction(s) in which the exposure(s) to Cyclospora occurred.
† The case counts include laboratory-confirmed and probable cases of cyclosporiasis. By definition, each outbreak included at least two linked cases, at least one of which was laboratory confirmed.
‡ A food vehicle is specified only if a single ingredient or commodity was identified in an outbreak investigation.
¶ Cases that occurred in Canadian travelers to the United States were not included.
** An additional 10 probable cases were associated with this outbreak but were not counted in the table: nine of these cases were in residents of states in which cyclosporiasis was not a reportable condition, and the other case was in a patient whose state of residence was unknown.
†† For additional details, see summary information about the outbreak investigations in 2013. For the purposes of this table, the exposure month(s) and case counts are limited to those explicitly linked in the investigations to the food item specified in the last column.
‡‡ For additional perspective, see summary information about outbreak investigations in 2014. For the purposes of this table, the exposure months and the case count for the outbreak in Texas are limited to those explicitly linked in the investigations to the food item specified in the last column.
¶¶ An additional nine suspected cases were identified in persons associated with this outbreak but were not counted in the table because of reporting issues (e.g., insufficient case data).
*** An additional three probable cases were identified in persons associated with this outbreak but were not counted in the table because of reporting issues (e.g., insufficient case data).
††† An additional two probable cases were identified in persons associated with this outbreak but were not counted in the table because of reporting issues (e.g., insufficient case data).
‡‡‡ One additional probable case was identified in a person associated with this outbreak but was not counted in the table because of a reporting issue.
⁂ More information to help distinguish among types of peas can be found herepdf icon.
Table: Summary of U.S. foodborne outbreaks of cyclosporiasis, 2000–2017
Year(s)*
Month(s)*
Jurisdiction(s)*
No. of cases†
Food vehicle and source, if identified‡
2000
May
Georgia
19
Raspberries and/or blackberries (suspected)
2000
June
Pennsylvania
54
Raspberries
2001
January–February
Florida
39
2001
January
New York City
3
2001–02
December–January
Vermont
22
Raspberries (likely)
2002
April–May
Massachusetts
8
2002
June
New York
14
2004
February
Texas
38
2004
February
Illinois
57
Basil (likely)
2004
May
Tennessee
12
2004
May–June
Pennsylvania
96
Snow peas from Guatemala ⁂
2005
March–May
Florida
582 ¶
Basil from Peru
2005
May
South Carolina
6
2005
April
Massachusetts
58
2005
May
Massachusetts
16
2005
June
Connecticut
30
Basil (suspected)
2006
June
Minnesota
14
2006
June
New York
20
2006
July
Georgia
3
2008
March
Wisconsin
4
Sugar snap peas (likely) ⁂
2008
July
California
45 ¶
Raspberries and/or blackberries (likely)
2009
June
District of Columbia
34
2011
June
Florida
12
2011
July
Georgia
88**
2012
June–July
Texas
16
2013††
June
Iowa, Nebraska, and neighboring states
162
Bagged salad mix from Mexico
2013††
June–July
Texas
38
Cilantro from Mexico
2013
July
Wisconsin
8
Berry salad (suspected)
2014
June
Michigan
14
2014‡‡
June–July
Texas
26
Cilantro from Mexico
2014
July
South Carolina
13
2015
May–July
Georgia, Texas, and Wisconsin
90
Cilantro from Mexico
2016
June–July
Texas
6¶¶
Carrots or green cabbage (suspected)
2017
May
Florida
6
Berries (suspected)
2017
May–July
Texas
38***
Scallions (i.e., green onions)
2017
June
Michigan
29
2017
June
Tennessee
4†††
2017
June
Connecticut
3
2017
July
Florida
3‡‡‡
By July 18, 1996, the CDC declared that raspberries from Guatemala — which had been sprayed with pesticides mixed with water that could have been contaminated with human sewage containing Cyclospora — were the likely source of the Cyclospora outbreak, which ultimately sickened about 1,000 people across North America. Guatemalan health authorities and producers have vigorously refuted the charges. The California Strawberry Commission estimates it lost $15 million to $20 million in reduced strawberry sales.
Cyclospora cayetanensis is a recently characterised coccidian parasite; the first known cases of infection in humans were diagnosed in 1977. Before 1996, only three outbreaks of Cyclospora infection had been reported in the United States. Cyclospora is normally associated with warm, Latin American countries with poor sanitation.
One reason for the large amount of uncertainty in the 1996 Cyclospora outbreak is the lack of effective testing procedures for this organism. To date, Cyclospora oocysts have not been found on any strawberries, raspberries or other fruit, either from North America or Guatemala. That does not mean that cyclospora was absent; it means the tests are unreliable and somewhat meaningless. FDA, CDC and others are developing standardized methods for such testing and are currently evaluating their sensitivity.
The initial, and subsequent, links between Cyclospora and strawberries or raspberries were therefore based on epidemiology, a statistical association between consumption of a particular food and the onset of disease. For example, the Toronto outbreak was first identified because some 35 guests attending a May 11, 1996 wedding reception developed the same severe, intestinal illness, seven to 10 days after the wedding, and subsequently tested positive for cyclospora. Based on interviews with those stricken, health authorities in Toronto and Texas concluded that California strawberries were the most likely source. However, attempts to remember exactly what one ate two weeks earlier is an extremely difficult task; and larger foods, like strawberries, are recalled more frequently than smaller foods, like raspberries. Ontario strawberries were never implicated in the outbreak.
Once epidemiology identifies a probable link, health officials have to decide whether it makes sense to warn the public. In retrospect, the decision seems straightforward, but there are several possibilities that must be weighed at the time. If the Ontario Ministry of Health decided to warn people that eating imported strawberries might be connected to Cyclospora infection, two outcomes were possible: if it turned out that strawberries are implicated, the ministry has made a smart decision, warning people against something that could hurt them; if strawberries were not implicated, then the ministry has made a bad decision with the result that strawberry growers and sellers will lose money and people will stop eating something that is good for them. If the ministry decides not to warn people, another two outcomes are possible: if strawberries were implicated, then the ministry has made a bad decision and people may get a parasitic infection they would have avoided had they been given the information (lawsuits usually follow); if strawberries were definitely not implicated then nothing happens, the industry does not suffer and the ministry does not get in trouble for not telling people. Research is currently being undertaken to develop more rigorous, scientifically-tested guidelines for informing the public of uncertain risks.
But in Sarnia (Ontario, Canada) they got a lot of sick people who attended the Big Sisters of Sarnia-Lambton Chef’s Challenge on May 12, 2010.
Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, who has a lot of titles and once called me at 5 a.m. to tell me I was an asshole (maybe not the exact words, but the sentiment) and chair of the Holstein Blue-Ribbon Panel on the Prevention of Foodborne Cyclospora Outbreaks writes that the 1996 cyclosporiasis outbreak in the United States and Canada associated with the late spring harvest of imported Guatemalan-produced raspberries was an early warning to public health officials and the produce industry that the international sourcing of produce means that infectious agents once thought of as only causing traveler’s diarrhea could now infect at home. The public health investigation of the 1996 outbreak couldn’t identify how, when, where, or why the berries became contaminated with Cyclospora cayetanensis.
The investigation results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1997. I was asked to write an editorial to accompany the investigation report.2 In my editorial, I noted the unknowns surrounding the C. cayetanensis contamination. The 1997 spring harvest of Guatemalan raspberries was allowed to be imported into both the United States and Canada—and again, a large outbreak of cyclosporiasis occurred. As in the 1996 outbreak, no source for the contamination of berries was found. Later in 1997, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) prohibited the importation of future spring harvests of Guatemalan raspberries until a cause for the contamination could be demonstrated and corrective actions taken. While the FDA did not permit the 1998 importation of the raspberries into the United States, the berries continued to be available in Canada. Outbreaks linked to raspberries occurred in Ontario in May 1998. When the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-led investigative team published its 1997 outbreak findings in the Annals of Internal Medicine, 3 I was again asked to write an accompanying editorial.4 As I had done in my previous editorial, I highlighted how little we know about the factors associated with the transmission Cyclospora on produce and how to prevent it.
Unfortunately, the state of the art for preventing foodborne, produce-associated cyclosporiasis had changed little since the 1996 outbreak despite the relatively frequent occurrence of such outbreaks.
Thirty-four years after that first Guatemalan raspberry-associated outbreak — and a year after produce-associated cyclosporiasis outbreaks that were linked to U.S.-grown produce — there has been a major leap in prevention, yet the outbreaks still happen.
Foodborne outbreaks of cyclosporiasis have been reported in the United States since the mid-1990s and have been linked to various types of imported fresh produce, including raspberries, basil, snow peas, mesclun lettuce, and cilantro; no commercially frozen produce has been implicated to date. U.S. foodborne outbreaks of cyclosporiasis that occurred before 2000 were summarized previously, as were the major documented outbreaks in 2013 and 2014. Foodborne outbreaks during the 18-year period of 2000–2017 are summarized here.
The table provides information about 39 reported foodborne outbreaks of cyclosporiasis that occurred in the United States during 2000–2017; the total case count was 1,730. No outbreaks were reported in 2003, 2007, or 2010. Overall, a median of two outbreaks were reported per year, with a median of 19 cases per outbreak (range, 3 to 582 cases). Although the outbreaks occurred during 8 different months (December through July), the peak months were May, June, and July. As indicated in the table, a food vehicle of infection was identified (or suspected) for 17 of the 39 outbreaks.
Identifying the particular food item/ingredient that caused an outbreak of cyclosporiasis can be very challenging—for example, if fresh produce was served as a garnish or topping or if several types of produce were mixed together. CDC and other agencies are working to develop and validate molecular typing methods that could distinguish among different strains of the parasite Cyclospora cayetanensis that causes cyclosporiasis. In the future, such tools could help link cases of cyclosporiasis to each other and to particular types of produce, which could help public health officials investigate and prevent cases and outbreaks of Cyclospora infection.
Table: Summary of U.S. foodborne outbreaks of cyclosporiasis, 2000–2017
Bethany Bump of the Times Union writes that New York state and local health departments are investigating an outbreak of cyclosporiasis in the Capital Region.
The gastrointestinal illness, which can spread through contaminated food and water, has been confirmed in 11 people so far.
Symptoms began around mid-June, and several of the patients reported eating at the Italian American Community Center in Albany, Prime Life Restaurant at the Beltrone Senior Living Community Center in Colonie, and a private buffet held at Union College in Schenectady, state health officials said.
While cyclosporiasis is endemic in some areas of the world, outbreaks in the U.S. are often associated with imported fresh produce that have been contaminated with a fecal parasite known as Cyclospora cayetanensis.
State health officials say there is no indication that the parasite was spread by poor food handling or preparation at local establishments, which are cooperating with the investigation. Instead, contamination often occurs prior to arrival at food distribution centers and restaurants, they said, and is not easily removed by standard rinsing.
Additional dining establishments may be identified as the investigation continues, they added.
Jackie Salo of the NY Post writes that Tokyo authorities are searching for a mystery pooper who repeatedly has left feces in the same shopping district.
The male perpetrator known as “Mr. Poop” has reportedly relieved himself on the streets of the Akihabra district on at least 10 occasions over the last three months, according to the Tokyo Reporter.
In one incident, the mystery pooper, who is believed to be in his 30s, was caught with his pants down as he fled. His dropped trousers were black and he was carrying a blue backpack, witnesses said.
The Straits Times reports more than 40 military staff and recruits at an academy in central Switzerland were taken to hospital on Thursday (July 4) after they suddenly fell violently ill, the government said.
In a statement, the Swiss defence department said that on Thursday afternoon, 43 recruits and members of the Jassbach academy in Linden, in Bern Canton, suddenly suffered from acute gastrointestinal problems, with diarrhoea and vomiting.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports that Cryptosporidium is the leading cause of outbreaks of diarrhea linked to water and the third leading cause of diarrhea associated with animal contact in the United States.
During 2009–2017, 444 cryptosporidiosis outbreaks, resulting in 7,465 cases were reported by 40 states and Puerto Rico. The number of reported outbreaks has increased an average of approximately 13% per year. Leading causes include swallowing contaminated water in pools or water playgrounds, contact with infected cattle, and contact with infected persons in child care settings.
What are the implications for public health practice?
To prevent cryptosporidiosis outbreaks, CDC recommends not swimming or attending child care if ill with diarrhea and recommends hand washing after contact with animals.
More Brits could be affected by mad cow disease as experts warn many could be infected without knowing. A second wave of deaths related to eating beef contaminated with Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) – or mad cow disease – could sweep the UK.
In 1993 Britain’s worst food scandal saw 4.4 million cows culled and claiming the lives of 177 people who had developed the human form of it, called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). Since then, strict controls have been in place to prevent BSE contaminating food products and the use of meat and bone mix is illegal. But humans could be affected for up to 50 years, warn experts. Neurology professor, Richard Knight, of Edinburgh’s CJD Surveillance Unit, told a BBC investigation – airing July 11 – that it is still unclear how many could be affected. He said: ‘There is still so much uncertainty about this disease.
‘And one of the things that is uncertain is how many people in the UK are silently infected. ‘At the moment I have to say we are simply not sure, but every prediction suggests there are going to be further cases.’ vCJD is caused by prions, which are infectious agents made up mainly of proteins. A study of a similar disease in 2009, caused by prions, showed the disease may incubate undetected for much longer. All affected had carried the same MM genetic makeup, but in 2009 victim Grant Goodwin, 30, became the first person to die of vCJD, despite carrying the different gene type of MV. In 2014, a British man, 36, became the second MV carrier to die from the disease.