Three ships operating in different parts of the world are all reporting cases of food poisoning among their crew. At least two crew members have died while others have been transferred from their ships and hospitalized. It might be coincidental or an outbreak of the more common norovirus, a common gastrointestinal disease, but it rarely causes deaths.
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A seafarer has died and many others taken ill following a food poisoning incident on a Precious Shipping bulker.
A jar of pickled bamboo shoots is said to be the source of the incident, which occurred earlier this month on the 34,000-dwt handysize bulker Lanna Naree (built 2012) in the Indian Ocean.
The chief cook passed away and up to 13 others were reported to have become unwell before the bulker could divert to Male in the Maldives.
Four crew members who did not eat the pickle suffered no ill effects.
Hashim said all seafarers who had shown symptoms were replaced in Male as a safety precaution.
“We are now in the process of getting this pickle analysed and reporting the same to the authorities so that action can be taken to avoid any such incident in the future,” Hashim said.
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Victims of foodborne illness are often so numerous that the government wants to cast the wide internet in contacting them about felony prosecutions that often occur years later.
Federal prosecutors who plan to take former Blue Bell Creameries president Paul Kruse to a jury trial in July are telling the judge this is just such a case. They filed a motion on Friday, Feb. 12, asking for a court order authorizing the Department of Justice (DOJ) to comply with the Crime Victims’ Rights Act “by using reasonable alternative measures for notifying potential unknown victims” in the Kruse case where the defendant is charged with multiple counts of fraud and conspiracy in relation to a deadly Listeria outbreak
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Health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who also attended the event, told journalists on Wednesday that he too had suffered from an upset stomach after consuming food at the event.
Over 170 persons have been hospitalised in a case of suspected food poisoning at an event attended by Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal at Karbi Anglong district on Tuesday.
According to media reports, one youth died on Tuesday night after consuming packed food at the ceremonial launch of the first session of the Diphu Medical College Hospital (DMCH). District officials are yet to confirm the exact cause of the death.
Incorporated as a not-for-profit in California in 1994, STOP began as a grassroots effort. The U.S. government and non-governmental organizations were not addressing this public safety issue and STOP stepped in to fill the void. The founders knew that increasing awareness about foodborne pathogens had to be a guiding principle.
Initially, STOP learned that there is not a singular government agency – there are many – that oversee food safety in the U.S. We also identified the lack of effective communication at all levels of governmental hierarchy – federal, state and local. It was clear that we weren’t the only organization seeking answers. As STOP became more knowledgeable of how food becomes contaminated, the weaknesses of the system and the complexity of the challenge of preventing foodborne illness became very apparent.
Learning that the United States government — our government — had known about emerging foodborne pathogens but lacked a comprehensive plan to combat them was disheartening. It was identified that as early as 1982, scientists and pathologists had been quietly warning the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Congress, and the media that a failure to inspect meat and poultry for bacteria would lead to a food safety disaster.
Time was of the essence and although there was significant resistance at every turn, STOP knew it held the truth.
STOP added its strong voice to the Safe Food Coalition, a group of consumer, public health and labor organizations which has advocated for improvements to the food safety system, particularly with respect to meat and poultry, since 1986. Industry held power, influence, and money. Victims’ families and survivors held onto lives that had been irreparably altered by foodborne illness. Families continued to tell their stories through the advocacy of STOP and its coalition partners.
STOP’s voices became a clarion call for change and eventually STOP was invited to participate in policy making. After countless hours spent educating the USDA and the meat industry about the devastation caused by E. coli, STOP became a key element in facilitating the first meat and poultry reforms since 1906. In 1996, STOP founders Roni and Nancy, were invited to witness this historic overhaul being signed into law by President Clinton.
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Brothers Stewart Parnell, 66, and Michael Parnell, 62, have, respectively, another 18 and 11 years to serve in federal prisons for their 2014 jury convictions involving Peanut Corporation of America (PCA).
But with so-called “2255” evidentiary hearings now scheduled, on April 20 for Michal and on May 25 for Stewart, the early release of both men is a possible outcome. Their trial was in relation to a deadly Salmonella outbreak traced to their peanut products.
By getting evidentiary hearings on their motions to “Vacate, Set Aside, or Correct” their sentences, the Parnells have secured something many others do not get.
United States Magistrate Judge Thomas Q. Langstaff has agreed to hear the motions in the same Albany, GA, courthouse where the Parnells were convicted and sentenced.
Posted in Death, food contamination, food death, food handler, Food Hazard, Food Hygiene, Food Illness, Food Inspections, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Testing, Food Pathogen, Food Poisoning, Food Poisoning Death, Food Safety, Food Temperature Abuse, Food Testing, foodborne disease, Foodborne Illness, foodborne outbreak, foodbourne outbreak, Uncategorized
Abu Dhabi: Nearly 830 cases of food poisoning were reported across Saudi Arabia between July 1 and December 31 last year, or five exposures a day, according to the National Center for Disease Prevention and Control (Weqaya).
Statistics also showed the total outbreaks of food-borne diseases were 61, of which 34 were from public sources, at a rate of 55.7 per cent, and 27 outbreaks from household sources, at a rate of 44.3 per cent.
The number of infected cases from household outbreaks was 104, or 12.5 per cent, while the number of incidences of food poisoning among Saudis reached 740, compared to 89 among non-Saudis.
Food contamination and food poisoning pose enormous risks to consumers across the world. As discussions of consumer experiences have spread through online media, we propose the use of text mining to rapidly screen online media for mentions of food safety hazards. We compile a large data set of labeled consumer posts spanning two major websites. Utilizing text mining and supervised machine learning, we identify unique words and phrases in online posts that identify consumers’ interactions with hazardous food products. We compare our methods to traditional sentiment‐based text mining. We assess performance in a high‐volume setting, utilizing a data set of over 4 million online reviews. Our methods were 77–90% accurate in top‐ranking reviews, while sentiment analysis was just 11–26% accurate. Moreover, we aggregate review‐level results to make product‐level risk assessments. A panel of 21 food safety experts assessed our model’s hazard‐flagged products to exhibit substantially higher risk than baseline products. We suggest the use of these tools to profile food items and assess risk, building a postmarket decision support system to identify hazardous food products. Our research contributes to the literature and practice by providing practical and inexpensive means for rapidly monitoring food safety in real time.
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University of Liverpool scientists have exploited the combined power of genomics and epidemiology to understand how a type of Salmonella bacteria evolved to kill hundreds of thousands of immunocompromised people in Africa.
Bloodstream infections caused by a drug-resistant type of Salmonella Typhimurium called ST313 are a major public health concern in Africa, where the disease is endemic and causes ~50,000 deaths each year. What was missing was an understanding of the timing of the major evolutionary events that equipped African Salmonella to cause bloodstream infections in humans.
In a new paper published in Nature Microbiology, a team of researchers from the UK, France and Malawi, sampled two comprehensive collections of Salmonella isolates from African patients with bloodstream infections, spanning 1966 to 2018, to piece together the evolutionary journey of the Salmonella over 50 years of human infections in Africa, including the discovery of a new lineage of antibiotic-susceptible ST313.
The study was led by Professor Jay Hinton at the University of Liverpool, who has been researching Salmonella for more than 30 years and leads the 10,000 Salmonella Genomes Project — a worldwide effort to understand the epidemiology, transmission and virulence of invasive non-Typhoidal Salmonellosis.
Professor Hinton said: “Through a remarkable team effort we have removed some of the mystery about the evolution of African Salmonella. We hope that by learning how these pathogens became able to infect the human bloodstream we will be better prepared to tackle future bacterial epidemics.”
The FDA and CDC, in collaboration with state and local partners, have completed the investigation on two of three multistate outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 infections in the U.S. this fall.
One of these investigations, Outbreak Unknown Source 3, identified 18 reported illnesses in nine states: California, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington.
FDA completed a traceback investigation of several potential food vehicles identified in patient interviews and although no single farm was identified as a common source of the outbreak, FDA and state partners also conducted on-site investigations on farms of interest. However, information and samples collected in these inspections did not link these farms to the outbreak. The investigation of a farm does not mean that the farm is linked to an outbreak. The results of an investigation into a farm may well lead to that firm being ruled out of the investigation. On 12/18/2020, the CDC announced that this outbreak had ended.
The other completed outbreak investigation, Outbreak Unknown Source 1, identified 32 reported illnesses in 12 states: California, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin. This strain of E. coli is genetically similar to a strain linked to a romaine outbreak that occurred in the spring of 2018, though a food was not linked to the current outbreak. FDA completed a traceback investigation and was unable to determine a common source of the outbreak. FDA and state partners also conducted on-site inspections on farms of interest, though information collected in these inspections did not link these farms to the outbreak. On 12/18/2020, the CDC announced that this outbreak had ended.
Investigations of a third E. coli outbreak of Unknown Source 2 continue.
Consumers, restaurants, and retailers, were advised not to eat, sell, or serve recalled Tanimura & Antle, Inc. brand packaged single head romaine lettuce with a pack date of 10/15/2020 or 10/16/2020.
The recalled products are now well beyond expiration and likely no longer on the market or in consumers’ homes.
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