Vaccines work: US advisory group urges hepatitis A shots for homeless

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And I would urge Hepatitis A shots for all food service employees.

For the first time, a U.S. advisory committee is recommending a routine vaccination for homeless people, voting Wednesday to urge hepatitis A shots to prevent future outbreaks of the contagious liver disease.

Carla Johnson of ABC News reports the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices made the recommendation at a meeting in Atlanta. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to adopt it and send guidance to health care providers.

Homeless encampments can contribute to disease through unsanitary conditions. Hepatitis A spreads person to person through contaminated food or dirty needles used for injection drugs. The virus also can spread from sexual contact with an infected person.

The recommendation would make it easier for shelters, emergency rooms and clinics that serve the homeless to offer hepatitis A shots along with other services.

Hepatitis A vaccinations already are recommended for children at age 1 and for others in danger of infection, such as drug users, some international travelers and men who have sex with men.

The committee of health experts voted unanimously to add homeless people to those groups. The panel is charged with developing recommendations for the CDC on the use of vaccines in the United States.

Health experts have seen an increase in hepatitis A outbreaks and suspected exposures, caused in part by homelessness and drug use.

Twelve states have reported more than 7,500 hepatitis A infections from January 2017 to October 2018, according to the CDC. There were more than 4,300 hospitalizations and about 74 deaths.

Homeless people have made up a large percentage of the cases in San Diego and Utah. Michigan, Kentucky, West Virginia and Tennessee have also reported cases among homeless people.

With even low rates of routine vaccination, the spread of hepatitis A can be slowed, Dr. Noele Nelson of the CDC told the committee before the vote. The recommendation is for a two-dose series of shots, but even one dose can provide immunity for 11 years, Nelson said.

At $28 per dose, a price available through the public health system, the cost of routine vaccination could be in the millions of dollars, Nelson said, but fighting a prolonged outbreak can be even more expensive and disruptive to the health care system.

When facts don’t matter: Arizona cancels vaccine program after backlash from parents who don’t vaccinate

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When will post-truth thinking extend to buildings and bridges, which will remain intact because of faith rather than physics?

Australia gets a few totalitarian things right, such as mandatory voting and mandatory vaccination if parents want their kids to attend school.

Stephanie Innes of Arizona Central writes the state of Arizona has canceled a vaccine education program after receiving complaints from parents who don’t immunize their school-age children.

The pilot online course, modeled after programs in Oregon and Michigan, was created in response to the rising number of Arizona schoolchildren skipping school-required immunizations against diseases like measles, mumps and whooping cough because of their parents’ beliefs.

But some parents, who were worried the optional course was going to become mandatory, complained to the Governor’s Regulatory Review Council, which reviews regulations to ensure they are necessary and do not adversely affect the public. The six-member council is appointed by Gov. Doug Ducey, with an ex-officio general counsel.

Members of the council questioned the state health department about the course after receiving the public feedback about it, emails show. The state responded by canceling it.

The complaints that ended the pilot program came from about 120 individuals and families, including 20 parents who said that they don’t vaccinate their children, records show.

“We’re so sorry we couldn’t make a go of this — strong forces against us,” Brenda Jones, immunization services manager at the Arizona Department of Health Services, wrote in an Aug. 6 email to a Glendale school official, along with a notification about the course’s cancellation.

In an email to two Health Department staff members on Aug. 14, Jones wrote that there had been “a lot of political and anti-vaxx” feedback.

“I’m not sure why providing ‘information’ is seen as a negative thing,” said state Rep. Heather Carter, R-Cave Creek, who spent the last three legislative sessions as chairwoman of the House Health Committee and helped create the pilot program.

“Providing information doesn’t take away a parent’s choice to seek an exemption. … This is a major concern. Vaccines have saved lives for generations. We all want to live in safe and healthy communities.”

Kindergartners in Maricopa County as a whole are now below herd immunity for measles, said Dr. Rebecca Sunenshine, medical director for disease control for the Maricopa County Department of Public Health.

Maricopa County reflects national trends that show people who choose not to vaccinate their children tend to be higher income and white, sh

The American Academy of Pediatrics views non-medical vaccine exemptions to school-required immunizations “as inappropriate for individual, public health, and ethical reasons and advocates for their elimination,” a September 2016 policy statement says.

A California law that took effect in 2016  —  a little more than a year after a measles outbreak erupted at Disneyland and spread to include seven Arizona cases — prohibits personal belief exemptions. Children in California may still get exemptions for medical reasons, as long as their exemption is signed by a licensed physician. Otherwise, they aren’t allowed to enroll in school. 

51 sick in Canada and U.S. from Salmonella linked to cucumbers

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I’ve been waiting for more info on this outbreak but it’s not there.

Cucumbers have been linked to at least 45 Salmonella illnesses in western Canada.

A further six people in Washington state – that’s also in the west – have been stricken by what seems to be the same bacterium linked to cucs, sold at Costco.

8 in UK sick from Salmonella linked to Dr. Zak’s liquid egg white

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‘Dr Zak’s Barn Farmed Liquid Egg White’ has been recalled by the UK Food Standards Agency.

Microbiological testing on a number of batches of the product has indicated contamination with Salmonella bacteria of the same strain as the bacteria causing infection in those affected.

Since mid-August 2018, 3 cases of salmonella have been confirmed in those who consumed the product and a further 5 cases remain under investigation.

Dr Nick Phin, Deputy Director, National Infection Service, Public Health England, said:

Most of those affected have now recovered. However, Salmonella can cause a serious infection in those with weakened immune systems or in vulnerable groups including babies, the elderly or pregnant women.

We’re aware that the high-protein product may be purchased by people for bodybuilding purposes. Symptoms of a Salmonella infection include diarrhoea, stomach cramps and sometimes vomiting and fever.

There are simple steps to stop its spread, including cooking food thoroughly, washing fruit and vegetables and washing your hands after using the bathroom.

It’s oh so simple.

Fairytale.

Epitaph ‘He tried to improve the world, one thermometer at a time’

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Soon after Sorenne started at Junction Park State School, I started volunteering in the tuck shop, prepping foods for a few hundred kids on Fridays.

I put in some time, but then politics overtook my food safety nerdiness so I stopped.

But not before I left about 10 Comark tip-sensitive digital thermometers and advised, use them frequently.

While cooking breakfast this morning for 120 school kids, I ran into my friend, Dave, who is currently running the tuck shop, and he told me the thermometers get a regular workout each week, he had to change some batteries last week, and he took one home for cooking.

Now imagine that a tip-sensitive digital thermometer could be used to harness user data (and sell product).

Sapna Maheshwari of The New York Times writes that most of what we do — the websites we visit, the places we go, the TV shows we watch, the products we buy — has become fair game for advertisers. Now, thanks to internet-connected devices in the home like smart thermometers, ads we see may be determined by something even more personal: our health.

This flu season, Clorox paid to license information from Kinsa, a tech start-up that sells internet-connected thermometers that are a far cry from the kind once made with mercury and glass. The thermometers sync up with a smartphone app that allows consumers to track their fevers and symptoms, making it especially attractive to parents of young children.

The data showed Clorox which ZIP codes around the country had increases in fevers. The company then directed more ads to those areas, assuming that households there may be in the market for products like its disinfecting wipes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends disinfecting surfaces to help prevent the flu or its spread.

Kinsa, a San Francisco company that has raised about $29 million from venture capitalists like Kleiner Perkins since it was founded in 2012, says its thermometers are in more than 500,000 American households. It has promoted the usefulness of its “illness data,” which it says is aggregated and contains no identifying personal information before being passed along to other companies.

It is unique, Kinsa says, because it comes straight from someone’s household in real time. People don’t have to visit a doctor, search their symptoms on Google or post to Facebook about their fever for the company to know where a spike might be occurring.

“The challenge with Google search or social media or mining any of those applications is you’re taking a proxy signal — you’re taking someone talking about illness rather than actual illness,” said Inder Singh, the founder and chief executive of Kinsa. Search queries and social media can also be complicated by news coverage of flu season, he said, while data from the C.D.C. is often delayed and comes from hospitals and clinics rather than homes.

The so-called internet of things is becoming enmeshed in many households, bringing with it a new level of convenience along with growing concerns about privacy.

Clorox used that information to increase digital ad spending to sicker areas and pull back in places that were healthier. Consumer interactions with Clorox’s disinfectant ads increased by 22 percent with the data, according to a Kinsa Insights case study that tracked performance between November 2017 and March of this year. That number was arrived at by measuring the number of times an ad was clicked on, the amount of time a person spent with the ad and other undisclosed metrics, according to Vikram Sarma, senior director of marketing in Clorox’s cleaning division.

Being able to target ads in this way is a big shift from even seven years ago, when the onset of cold and cough season meant buying 12 weeks of national TV ads that “would be irrelevant for the majority of the population,” Mr. Sarma said. The flu ultimately reaches the whole country each year, but it typically breaks out heavily in one region first and then spreads slowly to others.

While social media offered new opportunities, there has been “a pretty big lag” between tweets about the flu or flulike symptoms and the aggregation of that data for marketers to use, he said.

“What this does is help us really target vulnerable populations where we have a clear signal about outbreaks,” Mr. Sarma said.

Imagine using similar for data for people cooking dinner tonight.

This is what we’re having (above, right; Chapman, about those thermometers?).

44 sick from Salmonella Enteritidis linked to shell eggs from Gravel Ridge Farms

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Amy and I helped make breakfast for 120 grade 4 and 5 school kids this morning.

The kids had their annual sleepover Friday night at the school, in tents, with activities and endless gossip until late night or early morning (that’s Hubbell being busy in the background).

We arrived about 5:50 a.m., ready to make breakfast.

The menu was bacon and egg sandwiches on rolls, brown beans, and juice, along with vegan and halal alternatives, reflecting the multi-cultural nature of our neighbourhood and Sorenne’s school.

Amy worked in the kitchen, prepping rolls and keeping things rolling, while me and another dude worked the grill.

We cooked the bacon we had, then cleaned the grill thoroughly out of respect for others, and then the eggs.

There were no runny eggs.

There was no cross-contamination.

There wasn’t going to be some sorta Salmonella outbreak on my watch.

And Australia still has an egg problem.

What you do at home is your own business, but when cooking for 120 children, risk management is a little different.

For example, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state and local partners, investigated a multi-state outbreak of Salmonella Enteritidis illnesses linked to shell eggs.

As of October 25, 2018, there were 44 illnesses associated with shell eggs from Gravel Ridge Farms, in Cullman Alabama. The CDC has announced that this outbreak appears to be over.

The FDA advises consumers not to eat recalled shell eggs produced by Gravel Ridge Farms. Consumers who have purchased these products should discard the eggs or return them to the store for a refund. For a complete list of stores, visit the recall notice.

Consumers should always practice safe food handling and preparation measures. Wash hands, utensils, and surfaces with hot, soapy water before and after handling raw eggs and raw egg-containing foods. Dishes containing eggs should be cooked to 160° F. For recipes that call for eggs that are raw or undercooked when the dish is use either eggs that have been treated to destroy Salmonella, by pasteurization or another approved method, or pasteurized egg products.

On September 5, 2018, the FDA and Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industry began an inspection at Gravel Ridge Farms and collected environmental and egg samples for laboratory testing. The results were used to confirm that Salmonella Enteritidis isolates collected from environmental and egg samples taken at the farm were genetically related to isolates obtained from ill persons.

As a result of the outbreak, Gravel Ridge Farms voluntarily recalled cage-free, large eggs and removed the eggs from the shelves at grocery stores, restaurants, and other retail locations.

Twenty-six of 32 (81%) people interviewed reported eating restaurant dishes made with eggs. These restaurants reported using shell eggs in the dishes eaten by ill people.

The whole restaurant dishes-made-with-raw-eggs-thing, such as mayo and aioli is problematic. My 9-year-old knows to ask how the aioli is made if she gets fish, and the server always comes back and says, chef makes it only with raw eggs, and she knows enough to say no.

But we are the poop family (it’s on the front door).

I had a couple of thermometers in my back pack but were not necessary.

2 dead, 10 sick from Listeria in Switzerland

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RTS Info reports that since June, 2018, an unexplained outbreak of listeriosis, has been occurring across Switzerland. The Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) has identified 12 cases, 2 of which were fatal.

“What is unusual is that it is all cases of the same subtype of bacteria. We counted 12 cases, which is not that much, but 12 of the same type in a short time, it’s not normal,” said Daniel Koch, director of the Division of Communicable Diseases at the FOPH.

Research is being conducted to find the sources of the infection.

“We can talk about an epidemic and this disease can be deadly, but the population is not at risk. These germs benefit from flaws, a decrease in immunity, in the defenses of individuals. This therefore concerns especially pregnant women and the elderly,” Raffaele Malinverni, head of the Department of Medicine at the Neuchatel Hospital, told RTS on its Tuesday 12:45 broadcast.

The FOPH reminds that people at risk should avoid raw vegetables, raw or undercooked meat, raw fish and seafood, soft cheese and unpasteurized milk.
“Our survey is all the more difficult because the cases are spread all over Switzerland; it’s not easy, people have probably been infected with the same food, but it’s a food that had to be distributed in many places,” said Daniel Koch.

In 1987, more than 120 people became ill after eating Vacherin-Mont-d’or, and 30 of them died.

Naked butcher photos leads Australian residents to throw out beef and sausages

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Bridget Judd of ABC News reports the photo, purportedly taken at a local meat supplier, shows a butcher handling sausages dressed in only boots and an apron, leaving his bare buttocks exposed.

Kalkarindji Traditional Owner and Gurindji Aboriginal Corporation spokesperson Rob Roy said the butcher and meat supply facility were “easily identified” by the community.

“That to me is one idiot who is treating black people of this community, Kalkarindji, very wrong and not with a lot of respect,” he said.

“To me, that’s making me think back to Vincent Lingiari, maybe that’s why he walked off the station, because he wasn’t treated fair.

“They’re just treating us like dogs.”

Mr Roy said he had asked local supermarkets to dispose of fresh beef and sausages from the meatworks.

He said it was a health and safety risk, and the community should not “eat dirty meat off their sweat”.

“I went to the main mob, our local community store, told them to empty out the shelf,” he said.

“I said the snags, the beef, I want it all chucked away and empty the fridge until further notice.

“I rang the school, spoke to the principal … and told him to dispose all of [the meat], because we’ve got a really serious situation happening here.”

The butcher, who has been contacted for comment, removed the photo from Facebook on Friday afternoon.

In a statement, the Arnhem Land Progress Aboriginal Corporation (ALPA), which runs a number of remote stores across the Northern Territory, including the Kalkarindji meatworks, said the man’s employment had been terminated “effective immediately”.

All around food safety cool dude Michael (don’t call me Mike) Roberson wins an award

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Back when I used to make food safety infosheets I’d get these emails from a guy at Publix.  As a Canadian grad student I only knew Publix as a grocery store in Florida where my parents got beer when we drove south for 22 hours to escape the snow.

I now know it as a really progressive retail store when it comes to food safety (and other stuff). 

Those emails came from Michael Roberson and he shared that he was using the sheets, and the stories within to share food safety messages with store and processing plant staff.

And he’s now an award winning food safety guy – he won the 2018 SQFI Distinguished Service Award.

“Michael continues to influence advancements in food safety through his commitment to the supply chain,” noted Robert Garfield, chief food safety assessment officer and SVP of SQFI. “He is a stalwart champion for the profession and upholds standards for the safest, highest-quality products that consumers deserve and enjoy.”

Agreed, cool stuff Michael. Congrats.

Food Safety Talk 167: Will There Be Ninjas?

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Don and Ben are back in their respective normal podcasting chairs and talk about the Episode 166 recording in Geneseo, Canadian Thanksgiving, cooking beef and getting together with other food safety nerds. They talk a bunch about risk management decisions and how temperatures get established. The conversation goes to a large Salmonella outbreak in Canada linked to frozen chicken things that look like they are fully cooked. They go back to Thanksgiving talk (American this time) and then how to communicate cooking times/temperatures for products that are supposed to be ready-to-eat (or look ready-to-eat) and what happens if pathogens end up in those products (like frozen ham biscuits). The show ends on some chicken washing talk.

Episode 167 can be found at iTunes or here.

Show notes so you can follow along at home: