We estimated numbers of hospitalizations for norovirus gastroenteritis (NGE) and associated medical costs in Germany, where norovirus testing is high because reimbursement is affected. We extracted aggregate data for patients hospitalized with a primary or secondary code from the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10), NGE diagnosis during 2007–2012 from the German Federal Statistics Office.
We assessed reliability of the coding system in patient records from a large academic hospital. Approximately 53,000–90,000 NGE hospitalizations occurred annually in Germany (21,000–33,000 with primary and 32,000–57,000 with secondary ICD-10–coded NGE diagnoses). Rates of hospitalization with NGE as primary diagnosis were highest in children <2 years of age; rates of hospitalization with NGE as secondary diagnosis were highest in adults >85 years of age. The average annual reimbursed direct medical cost of NGE hospitalizations was €31–43 million. Among patients with a NGE ICD-10 code, 87.6% had positive norovirus laboratory results.
Norovirus Gastroenteritis among Hospitalized Patients, Germany, 2007–2012
Kowalzik, F., Binder, H., Zöller, D., Riera-Montes, M., Clemens, R., Verstraeten, T….Zepp, F. (2018). Norovirus Gastroenteritis among Hospitalized Patients, Germany, 2007–2012. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 24(11), 2021-2028. https://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid2411.170820.
A man who contaminated baby food in Germany has been sent to jail for 12-and-a-half years.
Gavin Grey of Eyewitness News reports the 54-year-old had attempted to blackmail retailers by claiming he would point out the poisoned items in return for cash.
He targeted shops in a southern German city.
In court, he admitted placing poisoned jars of adult and baby food in supermarkets and trying to blackmail the owners.
The contaminated jars contained ethylene glycol which is an odourless and toxic liquid used in antifreeze.
Prosecutors said some of the foods contained enough of the poison to kill a child and he was found guilty of five counts of attempted murder.
He was also found guilty of extortion, sending threatening emails to the stores demanding R200 million.
The court heard it was a matter of luck no child had been hurt.
(Something may be lost in translation, which is where Pink Floyd comes in)
This was informed by the Federal office for consumer protection and food safety in Braunschweig, Germany, on Thursday.
It is the in several States product, marketed with the name “Petite Fleur herbs” (“Keiems bloempje met kruiden”) the date of minimum durability 08.11.2018 and the additional indication of “Lot 3603”, as a manufacturer Dischhof/Belgium has been specified.
In the worst case, kidney failure threatening, According to the Schwabacher company in an investigation of the image Verotoxin found E. coli in the cheeses, which are regarded as potential Ehec.
The editor recommends:
“From a consumption of the affected product is strictly not recommended”, the company said.
The Ehec can cause bloody diarrhoea and in severe cases lead to kidney failure, but there are also inconspicuous progressions. The severe course of a disease ends in about two percent of the cases fatal.
In the spring of 2011 had cost the largest German Ehec epidemic 53. In Germany, the disease occurs again and again, every year, about 1000 cases of Ehec are reported cases.
In the PCP Luke (15) died because no one recognized the symptoms – now, his mother warns all.
Regarding peer-reviewed papers about cooking shows and food safety and something about integrity: There’s a lot of hucksters out there – especially in academia.
I’ve articulated where the idea came from (my father), how we set out to do the research in 2002, how the Canadian Food Network loved us and then threatened to sue us.
I’m, uh, unaffiliated, so sue away.
The rest of youse are posers, but at least the Germans cited us.
Which sorta freaks me out, given that my infant father had his surrounding landscape bombed away in Newport, Wales, in 1940 (some of my relatives may have owned the Red Lion, no one really wants to talk about it).
Since a few years, cooking shows have enjoyed great popularity in Germany. Currently, about 60 different formats are broadcasted on German television. In the field of food preparation and nutrition, they represent a significant passive source of information. This study aims to assess food safety practices in German TV cooking shows and to identify potential differences between professional and amateur chefs.
With the help of an observational sheet, three trained evaluators examined 100 episodes of eight popular TV cooking shows. On average, the evaluators observed 1.2 hygiene mistakes per minute or one hygiene lapse every 50 seconds. The most common mistakes include the use of unwashed cutting boards, adding ingredients with unwashed hands and wiping dirty hands with tea towels.
A lack of handwashing before beginning food preparation and after coughing, sneezing, wiping the nose or sweat or touching their hair, eyes, etc. was also frequently observed. No significant differences between professional and amateur chefs were found for the overall frequency of food safety mistakes, but professional chefs more often complied with specific personal hygiene measures.
Findings suggest that little attention is paid to safe food handling practices in German TV cooking shows. However, they may be particularly suited to convey safe food handling practices to a broad audience, not least because of their popularity.
Food safety behavior observed in German TV cooking shows
The recall affects 11 German states and comes after thousands of Dutch eggs were recalled in Germany because of renewed fipronil contamination.
Some 73,000 Dutch eggs were withdrawn from sale in Germany after more fipronil contamination was found in eggs from the Netherlands – a year after the original scandal.
Fipronil has been found on two Dutch farms in the latest scare and the authorities expect that it will be confirmed on a third.
According to the German Government site, the salmonella contamination has affected the states of Baden-Wurttemburg, Bavaria, Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein. The infections were reportedly discovered during a routine testing procedure.
The infected organic eggs were stocked by several major German retailers, including Penny, Kaufland, Aldi Nord, Aldi Sued, Real, Lidl and Netto.
Darko Janjevic of DW reports German authorities launched a probe into a string of deaths at a metal fittings company after an employee was caught trying to poison a co-worker’s lunch. Police found quicksilver, lead and cadmium in the man’s home.
The man was arrested for the incident in the town of Schloß Holte-Stukenbrock, northwest Germany. However, police now suspect he may be responsible for up to 21 deaths of people working for the same company.
The police detained the 56-year-old suspect in May this year, after one of his co-workers noticed an unknown white powder on his food. The would-be victim alerted his superiors and asked them to review the recordings made by security cameras, which then showed the suspect adding the substance to the co-worker’s lunch.
“In the beginning we thought it was a misconceived prank between co-workers, and not a murder attempt,” said Tilo Blechinger, the manager for the metal fittings manufacturer ARI Armaturen, to the DPA news agency.
The case escalated to an attempted murder after authorities identified the powder as lead acetate, a highly toxic and nearly tasteless substance that could cause serious organ damage.
Repetition is the norm. Karl Popper had something to say about that.
In 2004, my laboratory reported (and by reported I mean published in a peer-reviewed journal) that, based on 60 hours of detailed viewing of television cooking shows, an unsafe food handling practice occurred about every four minutes, and that for every safe food handling practice observed, we observed 13 unsafe practices. The most common errors were inadequate hand washing and cross-contamination between raw and ready-to-eat foods.
Once the paper was published, it made headlines around the globe.
They then tested two groups of participants making chicken salad with home-made mayonnaise based on a cooking video – one of which showed a chef who followed recommendations and another which showed a cook with poor hygiene.
Those shown the video with the exemplary kitchen hygiene complied with the recommended measures more frequently when cooking the dish by themselves.
Prof Hensel added: “The results show that the kitchen hygiene presented in cooking shows may have an influence on the hygiene behaviour of the viewers.
“TV cooking shows can therefore take on a role model function by sharpening awareness of kitchen hygiene instead of neglecting it.”
Consumers receive information on food preparation from a variety of sources. Numerous studies conducted over the past six years demonstrate that television is one of the primary sources for North Americans. This research reports on an examination and categorization of messages that television food and cooking programs provide to viewers about preparing food safely. During June 2002 and 2003, television food and cooking programs were recorded and reviewed, using a defined list of food safety practices based on criteria established by Food Safety Network researchers. Most surveyed programs were shown on Food Network Canada, a specialty cable channel. On average, 30 percent of the programs viewed were produced in Canada, with the remainder produced in the United States or United Kingdom. Sixty hours of content analysis revealed that the programs contained a total of 916 poor food-handling incidents. When negative food handling behaviors were compared to positive food handling behaviors, it was found that for each positive food handling behavior observed, 13 negative behaviors were observed. Common food safety errors included a lack of hand washing, cross-contamination and time-temperature violations. While television food and cooking programs are an entertainment source, there is an opportunity to improve their content so as to promote safe food handling.
An explosive increase of CPC isolated from rectal swabs of patients during weekly routine screening led to the declaration of an outbreak. A hospital-wide prevalence screening was initiated as well as screening of all patients on admission and before transfer to another ward, and canteen staff, patient rooms, medical and kitchen inventory and food. Swabs were streaked out on selective plates. All CPC isolates were analysed by mass spectrometry and selected isolates by whole-genome sequencing.
In total, 76 mostly unrelated cases in different wards were identified. The CPC was isolated from retained samples of prepared vegetable salads and puddings and from a mixing machine used to prepare them only after an overnight culture. The immediate ban on serving potential source food resulted in a sharp decline and finally disappearance of novel cases. Repeated testing of pre-sliced vegetables showed a high degree of contamination with C. freundii without a carbapenemase, indicating a possible source.
This report demonstrates that an explosive increase in carbapenemase-expressing Enterobacteriaceae contamination may be caused by a foodborne source, and suggests that pre-sliced vegetables have to be taken into account as a putative pathogen repository. It also underlines the importance of appropriate cooling, transport, re-heating and distribution of meals and indicates that probing of non-organic surfaces is limited by low sensitivity, which may be increased by additional overnight cultivation in appropriate media.
A nosocomial foodborne outbreak of a VIM carbapenemase-expressing Citrobacter freundii
Associated Press reports that German authorities said Saturday they are confident that a 53-year-old man arrested a day earlier is behind a blackmail attempt that saw jars of poisoned baby food placed on store shelves in southern Germany.
Prosecutors said investigators found the same poison — ethylene glycol, a compound used in antifreeze — when they arrested the man Friday near the southwestern city of Tuebingen.
Chief prosecutor Alexander Boger told a news conference in Konstanz, on Germany’s southern border, that the man hadn’t confessed but the evidence against him was substantial.
DNA found on the baby food jars and pictures taken with a supermarket surveillance camera also pointed to the suspect, who wasn’t identified due to German privacy rules, prosecutors said.
Authorities and companies received an email this month threatening to poison unspecified food at German retailers inside the country and beyond unless more than 10 million euros ($11.8 million) was paid by Saturday.
The blackmailer alerted authorities that five jars of baby food at shops in Friedrichshafen, near Konstanz, had been tampered with. Officials located the jars and found they contained ethylene glycol but said there’s no evidence that anyone was poisoned.
We investigated 543 Listeria monocytogenes isolates from food having a temporal and spatial distribution compatible with that of the invasive listeriosis outbreak occurring 2012–2016 in southern Germany. Using forensic microbiology, we identified several products from 1 manufacturer contaminated with the outbreak genotype. Continuous molecular surveillance of food isolates could prevent such outbreaks.
Molecular tracing to find source of protracted invasive listeriosis outbreak, Southern Germany, 2012-2016
Emerging Infectious Disease, vol 23, no 10, October 2017, Sylvia Kleta, Jens Andre Hammerl, Ralf Dieckmann, Burkhard Malorny, Maria Borowiak, Sven Halbedel, Rita Prager, Eva Trost, Antje Flieger, Hendrik Wilking, Sabine Vygen-Bonnet, Ulrich Busch, Ute Messelhäußer, Sabine Horlacher, Katharina Schönberger, Dorothee Lohr, Elisabeth Aichinger, Petra Luber, Andreas Hensel, and Sascha Al Dahouk
We assessed reliability of the coding system in patient records from a large academic hospital. Approximately 53,000–90,000 NGE hospitalizations occurred annually in Germany (21,000–33,000 with primary and 32,000–57,000 with secondary ICD-10–coded NGE diagnoses). Rates of hospitalization with NGE as primary diagnosis were highest in children <2 years of age; rates of hospitalization with NGE as secondary diagnosis were highest in adults >85 years of age. The average annual reimbursed direct medical cost of NGE hospitalizations was €31–43 million. Among patients with a NGE ICD-10 code, 87.6% had positive norovirus laboratory results.
