‘I’m massively jaundice and my liver’s pretty crappy’; hepatitis A victim speaks

Posted on February 16, 2015 by Ben Chapman

Hepatitis A is a pretty nasty foodborne virus, often leading to long term liver issues. According to the Daily Mail, one of the folks in a cluster of hep A illnesses linked Chinese-grown berries in Australia is speaking out.

Trudie Sims, from Ballarat in Victoria, had been using Nanna’s frozen berries in smoothies until Sunday evening, when she was alerted to the health warning which had been issued.

‘I’m really angry … (and) it’s absolutely terrified me’, Ms Sims told Daily Mail Australia.

So far four cases of hepatitis A have been confirmed in Queensland, three in Victoria, and two in New South Wales. Ms Sims’ case could take the national toll to ten.

‘Over the last two to three weeks I’ve been getting quite sick and I just thought it was a flu,’ Ms Sims revealed.

‘Last night I just couldn’t really swallow anymore and I was going to make a frozen drink like I have been for the last four to six weeks,’ she added added.

After her partner Trevor alerted her to the health warning which had been issued when he saw Ms Sims with a packet of Nanna’s berries – he rushed her to hospital.

Since her admission her eyelids have turned yellow and she is exhibiting signs of jaundice.

‘I’m massively jaundice and my liver’s pretty crappy and these are the first signs of hep A from the berries,’ Ms Sims revealed.

Though still awaiting the definitive results of her blood tests, Ms Sims said her doctor was almost certain she had hepatitis A, news which left her in tears.

The Ballarat woman said she feels betrayed by the food company, and claims she was misled over the origin of the product which she thought were Australian made.

‘I’m really angry’, Ms Sims said before adding ‘It’s disgusting. We’re in Australia – we have our own resources.’

She now faces at least a week of unpaid leave from her casual job, is on heavy antibiotics and can’t even kiss her partner.

Ms Sims said she was beside herself when she found out, especially since she and partner Trevor visited his sick mother in hospital just last week. She hopes that she did not pass on any virus.

And the import blame game has started.

Victorian Farmers Federation president Peter Tuohey said not all imported food adhered to Australia’s strict guidelines which were some of the best health and safety standards in the world.

Mr Tuohey urged consumers to always buy Australian made products but conceded identifying those products could be quite challenging.

‘I can only assume that this company is using Chinese berries because they are offering a lower market price,’ he told The Herald Sun. ‘Berries are certainly in season in Australia.’

He said that it was likely the berries were contaminated when they were first picked.

‘They may have been placed on the ground where rats and other vermin could have caused the problem,’ he said.

‘Unfortunately, Australian Customs don’t test every batch, they only check a certain percentage of shipments.’

More cases expected in Australian frozen berry hepatitis A outbreak

Posted on February 15, 2015 by Ben Chapman

Berries are a staple of my diet; I go through about 2 lbs a week of raspberries, blackberries and strawberries. When the fresh berries are too expensive (or don’t look good) I substitute with frozen ones – and often cook them before eating after the multiple noro and hep A outbreaks in the past few years.

According to ABC (the Australian one), another illness in New South Wales has been linked to Nanna’s frozen mixed berries, bringing the number of outbreak cases up to five.

A second case of hepatitis A linked to Nanna’s frozen mixed berries has been confirmed in New South Wales.

It follows the identification of three cases in Victoria linked to the same product.

The NSW Health department has issued a warning urging consumers not to eat the product with best-before dates up to and including November 22, 2016.

The department said it was not sure how many others may be affected given the berries are widely distributed and the potential for people to develop the disease in the coming weeks.

Dr Vicky Sheppeard from NSW Health’s Communicable Diseases Branch said there were concerns because hepatitis-A was contagious.

“So far we’ve had two people that have confirmed hepatitis A, that in the weeks to months before they developed hepatitis A had consumed these berries and they’re coming from different parts of the state, so we’re concerned this might be a more widespread problem,” said Dr Sheppeard.

Dr Sheppeard said NSW Health were expecting more cases to arise.

“The incubation period for hepatitis A is between two and seven weeks, so at this stage it’s an early stage of the investigation and we’re still gathering information about how much of the product is in NSW homes but potentially we will be seeing more cases in the coming weeks,” said Dr Sheppeard.

At least 4 sick: consumers warned to throw out Nanna’s Frozen Berry 1kg packets linked to Hepatitis A outbreak

Posted on February 14, 2015 by Douglas Powell

In a just-published follow-up to the Hepatitis A link to Nanna’s frozen berries – sourced from China and Chile — angry consumers have taken to social media after four hepatitis A cases sparked a health warning about a frozen berries product.

The Internet sorta works for some, in Australia, I guess.

It’s Saturday afternoon here and the company says it will publish adverts in the Monday papers? It really is 1978 here (for some).

The Department of Health is calling on the company to recall the product after three Victorian adults and one in New South Wales were diagnosed with the disease.

Customers this morning blasted the company for not issuing any advice on their web channels.

Some customers were frustrated after they saw a Valentine’s Day post on the Nannas Facebook page was quickly removed as news of the outbreak came to the fore.

Others posting on the Facebook page demanded a refund on any medical check-ups they might need to undergo.

One wrote: “You have nothing on your Facebook page and are still promoting the contaminated product on your website. This is completely unacceptable, negligent.”

Another said she was “unhappy” after she had eaten the mixed berries only yesterday and asked for “further information on the recall issued and how to go about refund and medical tests.”

And another said she found it “highly irresponsible” for a Valentine’s Day post to be added “but no post regarding the potential Hepatitis A risk.”

Hepatitis A, Listeria for hospital patients, Salmonella: is anyone responsible for food safety in Australia?

Posted on February 14, 2015 by Douglas Powell

A day after New South Wales (that’s a state in Australia) revealed that one had died and at least 23 sickened from Salmonella in food served at aged facilities, one kilogram bags of Nanna’s frozen mixed berries are being pulled off supermarket shelves across Australia because of a link to the virus Hepatitis A.

Have any of these 6-figure bureaucrats seen the numerous stories linking Hep-A to frozen berries that have been circulating for at least two years?

Stores are being advised and there will be advertisements in national newspapers on Monday.

That’s because the Internet sucks in Australia, so people still newspapers.

1978.

The berries came from China and Chile and were packed at Patties, a company based at Bairnsdale, in eastern Victoria.

The company has been contacted for comment.

Dr Rosemary Lester, the state’s chief health officer, said frozen berries had been implicated in past outbreaks of Hepatitis A.

“Hepatitis A virus infection is uncommon and normally associated with travel to countries affected by endemic Hepatitis A,” she said.

“The only common link between the cases is consumption of this product. There is no overseas travel or common restaurant exposure.

“Sampling of the product will be undertaken to identify the virus but it is difficult to find Hepatitis A virus, even in a contaminated batch.”

The berries have a two-year shelf life and any product purchased from October 2014 onwards should be thrown out.

In a seperate recall, a number of hospitals have been told to throw out a chocolate mousse product, found in routine tests, to contain listeria.

The mousse, which had a use-by date of February 14, 2015, was supplied to the Austin Hospital, St Vincent’s Private, St Vincent’s Mercy, Brunswick Private, the Royal Children’s Hospital, Ballarat Health Services, Caulfield Hospital, Sandringham Hospital, Frankston Hospital and Rosebud Hospital.

23 sick: Salmonella death at aged care facility in Australia, nine others hospitalized

Posted on February 13, 2015 by Douglas Powell

In the timely public reporting that characterizes Australia, a person has died from Salmonella at an aged care facility in the Illawarra.

NSW Health says cases of Salmonella first appeared in aged care homes on January 21.

An investigation has uncovered 23 cases in 10 facilities across South Eastern Sydney, the Illawarra and ACT.

Nine cases resulted in hospitalization and one death occurred after hospitalization.

The Illawarra Retirement Trust says 20 of the cases occurred in it’s care centres.

The IRT also runs a food distribution network for retirement homes.

Director of the Communicable Diseases Branch of NSW Health, Vicky Sheppeard said, “Facilities are no longer serving foods considered as likely risks, for example food that is not reheated prior to serving.”

No mention of temperatures that would be considered safe.

Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District public health director Curtis Gregory said the elderly residents were mainly suffering from vomiting and diarrhea, but there were also problems from lack of hydration and some residents had high fevers.

Salmonellosis is one of the most common notifiable conditions in NSW, with more than 3000 people diagnosed each year and many going undiagnosed.

The bacteria is mainly spread to people when they eat undercooked food made from infected animals – including meat, poultry, eggs and their by-products – or salad items fertilised by manure.

“It’s a fairly uncommon type of salmonella called bovismorbificans and we think it is linked to salad products,” Mr Gregory said.

“Specifically we believe it may be due to the fertiliser or cow manure used to grow those salad products.”

Raw milk could face national ban in Australia after recommendation from forum; raw milk cheese OKed

Posted on February 2, 2015 by Douglas Powell

A national ban on the sale of raw milk is looming after state and territory leaders agreed consumers need protection from the dangers posed by unpasteurized milk.

The Australia and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation, attended by ministers responsible for food regulation, raised their ‘extreme concern’ about the consumption of unpasteurized cow’s milk that is sold as ‘bath milk’ with a disclaimer ‘not for human consumption’.

The forum found urgent action was required at a national level and are asking for “a joint public health, food safety and consumer law solution that will deliver a consistent approach across all Australian jurisdictions”.

Last month Premier Mike Baird vowed to work with other state and territory leaders to stop health food stores selling the potentially deadly product.

His move followed Victoria’s tough action on producers of raw milk following the death of a Victorian child and the hospitalization of four other children in December. The children suffered severe complications as a result of food poisoning sourced to raw milk consumption.

The sale of raw milk is already banned for human consumption in all states and territories but raw milk is sold as ‘bath milk’ or ‘cosmetic milk’ with a disclaimer, but it is knowingly being consumed by people who argue the bacteria in raw milk are beneficial to health.

Microbiologist Professor Michael Eyles, chair of the Food Safety Information Council, said raw milk was a dangerous product because it contained dangerous bacteria which had the opportunity to multiply during packaging, transit and storage for retail.

“It’s just irresponsible to sell raw milk and pretend it’s safe, it is not,” Prof Eyles said.

Victorians who give family members raw milk to drink face fines of $60,000 under new regulations.

As of Sunday, a strong bittering agent will be put into unpasteurized milk to deter people from consuming it, according to the state’s minister for consumer affairs, Jane Garrett.

More than 100 protesters gathering outside Garrett’s Brunswick office and vowing they would continue drinking milk in what they describe as its “purest form.”

Meanwhile, specialist cheese makers are welcoming a decision by the New Zealand and Australian health ministers to allow a wider range of cheeses to be made from raw milk.

The decision was made at a meeting of the ministers in Auckland. The new rules require that the raw milk cheese does not support the growth of disease-causing bacteria, and that there is no rise in the level of those during processing.

1 toddler dead, 4 sick, so protesters will demand raw milk be sold for drinking in Victoria

Posted on January 29, 2015 by Douglas Powell

Just weeks after health types in the Australian state of Victoria (that’s where Melbourne is) declared a three-year-old had died and four other children sickened from consuming raw milk, natural types are planning a drink-in Saturday to get even more unpasteurized milk on store shelves.

Three of the four children – all under five — developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, usually associated with shiga-toxin producing E. coli, such as E. coli O157, and the other developed cryptosporidiosis.

How many others developed milder forms of illness is unknown.

In response to the outbreak in early Dec., Victoria Consumer Affairs Minister Jane Garrett ordered a gag-inducing chemical to be poured into all raw milk sold in stores from Sunday, ensuring no one is able to drink it (raw milk is legally sold as bath milk, side-by-side with pasteurized milk; that would be an expensive bath).

The move has apparently infuriated food activists, who are now planning a protest on Saturday to demand that the unpasteurized product be made available for drinking.

“The government’s approach so far has been a very knee-jerk reaction,” said organic food store owner Rebecca Freer, who is planning the “drink-in” outside the minister’s Brunswick East office.

“I think they’re in denial that there’s a large subculture of raw milk drinkers, who are well-informed, educated people.”

The Australian Raw Milk Movement is encouraging people to “BYO cup” and drink raw milk outside Garrett’s office.

Supporters of drinking unprocessed milk like Ms Freer dispute the product’s link with the child’s death and instead stress the supposed health benefits from consuming a natural product.

But they never mention the other kids who developed HUS.

“It’s our consumer right to define what we eat and drink,” she said. “Australia is really backwards on this issue.”

After being contacted by Guardian Australia, Freer posted to the Australian Raw Milk Movement’s Facebook wall that she had been contacted by journalists and that “the fight is on.”

“I think it is fair to say we are in the midst of a violent resistance,” she wrote.

Nutritionist Arabella Forge, who will speak at Saturday’s protest, said current food safety laws could be amended to get raw milk on store shelves without compromising food safety.

“What we’re really asking for is a system of regulation that supports safe, raw milk,” she said. “People should have access to this product.”

CSIRO research microbiologists Narelle Fegan and Edward Fox, who have studied raw milk safety on Victorian farms, have both warned against drinking raw milk, even from farms with the highest of standards.

“When the milk comes out of the animal it should be sterile, but then it’s immediately contaminated by its environment,” Dr Fegan said. “When things go wrong they can go wrong pretty badly with people getting seriously ill.”

Dr Fox said there was no evidence that raw milk was more nutritious – a common claim made by raw milk supporters.

“Pasteurised milk is as nutritional as raw milk and it has, due to the pasteurisation process, a lower associated risk,” he said.

Victoria’s chief health officer, Dr Rosemary Lester, has also stood behind her recent raw milk health warnings.

Ms Garrett defended her decision to add a bittering agent to raw milk on Thursday, saying it’s meant to prevent illness and death.

“The actions we have taken are designed to stop people from putting themselves and their children at risk,” she said.

Meanwhile, in Adelaide, South Australia, a court heard a temperature rise in samples taken from a farm owned by a couple being prosecuted for selling unpasteurised milk to when it was tested would have caused a “marginal” rise in bacteria readings.

Moo View Dairy owners Mark and Helen Tyler, who on Wednesday brought a cow to the front of the court building, are contesting charges of breaching the food act by selling the raw milk commercially.

The couple have been operating a “House Cow Share Scheme” where people can buy shares in one of their cows which entitles them to a percentage of the milk produced by the herd.

The raw milk was also found to have higher than the legally acceptable amount of bacteria — leading to one of the two counts of selling food in contravention of the food standards code against them in April and May, 2013.

In cross examination on Thursday, SA Dairy Authority general manager John Crosby said that rise would only have had a “marginal affect” on the milk’s bacteria count.

Mr Tyler and shareholder Rachel Tyson, who on Wednesday came to court dressed in a cow suit in a sign of support for the couple, are expected to give evidence on Friday.

Australian raw milk charlatans

Posted on January 11, 2015 by Douglas Powell

Selling the raw milk for human consumption is illegal in Australia but many health stores offer the product for cosmetic use, suggesting people can bathe in the substance.

This has allowed the unpasteurised milk to be available in several niche outlets in Sydney positioned alongside regular pasteurised milk.

UNSW’s Associate Professor of Food and Microbiology, Julian Cox, said marketing raw milk as a cosmetic product was nothing but retailers attempting to dodge the ban and could lead to infection.

Certain bacteria can get into the raw milk during the milking process if the cow has mastitis, or “milk fever,” he explained.

This can trigger skin infections in humans if they use it on the skin and it comes into contact with wounds or burns.

“In mastitis, bacteria can be present at very high levels in raw milk,” Associate Professor Cox said.

“Pseudomonas aeruginosa is well known to cause problems with wounds and burns, high levels could be a problem even with topical or cosmetic use — without consumption.”

Pasteurisation removes such a threat.

“Pasteurisation is something we have had in place for a century.” he said.

“It keeps milk at a safe and important part of the food supply.”

Sydney Children’s Hospital department head of paediatric gastroenterology, Dr Avi Lemberg, said people needed to be reminded that infectious diseases are still a risk despite medical advancements.

“People have come to believe that infectious diseases are no longer a risk by things like pasteurization and also immunization, but in fact they are saving millions of lives every year around the world,” Dr Lemberg said.

“The really young and the elderly are those who will be most affected.”

Dr Lemberg also criticised the cosmetic marketing for raw milk.

“It’s a mask so people can take it home and so-call have a ‘more natural’ lifestyle,” he said.

Bondi man and armchair epidemiologist Bill Tucker is an avid raw milk supporter.

The 55-year-old believes the drink has health benefits and the controversy and health fears surrounding it are unnecessary.

“I believe it’s got good bacteria. They have it everywhere else in the world like Europe. I can’t see a problem with it,” he said outside The Health Emporium in Bondi.

“There are a few germs. I think that’s why people get allergies, a few more germs would toughen people up.”

Fellow shopper Deborah Whitebread also supports the sale and production of raw milk.

She said milk was best straight from the cow and people should have the freedom to choose whether or not they drink it.

A 30-year-old woman, who also did not want to be named, said she was aware they sold raw milk for bathing yet she was suspicious of how customers actually use the product.

“It is mainly health food stores that it is sold in and I guess it is giving people the opportunity if they want to use it for cosmetic purposes that it is there,” she said.

“But I think from people who I know who use it they don’t use it for cosmetic purposes they use it to consume at home.

“It’s a thing that I would not give to children or myself.”

Claire Harvey: Raw milk is deadly ‘mooshine’, and nobody in Australia is bathing in it

Posted on January 3, 2015 by Douglas Powell

Claire Harvey writes in The Sunday Telegraph that just before Christmas, a Victorian three-year-old died and four more children were in hospital with life-threatening illnesses after drinking unpasteurized ‘raw’ milk, commonly sold in health food stores.

The Victorian government responded quickly, passing a regulation that meant all milk manufactured in Victoria must be either pasteurized, or be rendered undrinkable with a bitter-tasting agent.

NSW Premier Mike Baird says only national action will work and the Government can’t stop health food stores selling this stuff. I think that’s nonsense — Jim Beam isn’t manufactured here, either, but the Government certainly regulates that.

I’d be happy to escort Mr Baird or any of his Cabinet to the myriad ‘health’ stores where raw milk, imported from other states, is being sold with misleading labels declaring it to be ‘cosmetic’ or ‘bath milk.’ Worse, it’s displayed in dairy cabinets, right next to the regular milk and cheese.

Here’s why I think the Government must immediately order all milk to be pasteurized.

Nobody’s bathing in it. Hello. Does our Government really believe people when they say raw milk is for bathing? It’s almost sweetly naive that anyone would actually believe that claim — let alone the health authorities. If it’s for bathing, why does it need to be kept in the fridge? And please don’t say ‘to stop it from going off’. The ‘cosmetic’ raw milk label is a deliberate wink-wink way to get around the law — dreamt up precisely so parents who think they know better than biologists can give this stuff to their children. Anyway, you’d have a very shallow bath on a two-litre bottle — unless you diluted it into homeopathic raw milk. Yeah, right.

Milk is for kids. Toddlers are by far the greatest drinkers of milk across the entire population: more than 83 per cent of children aged between two and three drink milk every day. In fact, dairy products are overwhelmingly toddlers’ most commonly consumed foods: an average of 96 per cent have some dairy product every single day, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ National Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey. So what’s the possibility that tiny children will end up consuming the raw milk in health-food shops? I’d say it’s almost guaranteed.

Little tummies are fragile. Under the age of three, the immune system is far too delicate to cope with the bugs that adult guts can process. Bacteria like listeria or E. coli might give an adult a few days of unpleasant toilet time, but they are potentially deadly for children and can cause lifelong neurological disorders. That’s what happened to at least one of the children hospitalised in Victoria. Doctors say one of the greatest risks associated with food poisoning is severe dehydration _ and dehydration is a killer of infants and small children.

Kids don’t read labels. They just charge up to the fridge and grab the nearest bottle. Even the ones who are old enough to read are highly unlikely to say: “Hang on mum, this one says ‘cosmetic purposes only’,” as it sploshes over the biodynamic spelt flakes.

Endangering children is nobody’s right. Libertarians say if people want to drink unpasteurised milk, they should be allowed to do so — just like if you want to go without a seatbelt or a bike-helmet, you should be a allowed to risk your life. My view is we need to find the balance between individual liberty and protection from the idiocy of others. Everyone has a God-given right to make bad decisions for themselves, so long as it doesn’t endanger anyone else (and particularly any children). If that makes us a nanny state, I’m all for it.

‘People should not be feeding it to their children’ Victoria law preventing the sale of raw ‘bath’ milk begins today

Posted on January 1, 2015 by Douglas Powell

In response to the death of a child and the hospitalization of others, the Victorian government has changed the laws around the sale of raw milk.

All raw bath or cosmetic milk products now must be pasteurized, or have a gag-inducing agent added that makes it taste bitter, before sale.

Victorian Minister for Consumer Affairs, Jane Garrett, says the law change is prudent.

“There’s been a lot of confusion about the capacity for humans to consume raw milk and its effects,” she said.

“A lot of these products are in containers identical to drinkable milk and stored in the same locations in shops.”

Producers of bath milk in Victoria contacted by ABC Rural say the law change has been so swift that they don’t know what it will mean for them, or what equipment they’ll need to continue production.

Minister Garrett says she had no choice but to act quickly.

“We did need to act quickly becasue clearly, undrinkable milk was being sold in containers the same as drinkable milk, and clearly people have been drinking it.”

“All of the advice says it is a dangerous activity and it is (already) unlawful to sell raw milk for consumption in Victoria.”

At this stage the law change is only for Victoria.

Another loophole the United Dairyfamers of Victoria (UDV) want closed is a scheme that allows farmers to sell part of their cow to a consumer who is then supplied the production of their cow as raw milk.

Minister Garrett says whilst there are no current penalties for these practices at this stage, the law could soon change.

“There is an investigation being led by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) which all states are participating in.

“We would expect to see results from that.”

Although these rule changes are for producers and sellers of raw milk the Minister says consumers should be wary of the new law.

“If people want to feed raw milk to their children and their children get sick, that may be an issue authorities want to look into.

“People should not be feeding it to their children. People should not be drinking it.”

barfblog

safe food from farm to fork

Tag Archives: Australia