Category Archives: Food Virus

USA – Norovirus Update Mulvaney Restaurant

Posted on May 31, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Food Poisoning BulletinNorwalk_Caspid

The outbreak of norovirus at Mulvaney’s restaurant in Sacramento we told you about in March has been confirmed and updated. Laura McCasland, Communication & Media Officer of the Sacramento County Department of Health & Human Services told us that 138 people were sickened in this outbreak.

The ill persons ate at the restaurant between Friday, February 22 and Tuesday, February 26, 2013. During the week of February 17 to February 24, 2013, at least six food service workers reported that they were ill. People started gettting sick between Friday, February 22, 2013 and Thursday, February 28, 2013. The cause of the illness was norovirus. The restaurant was inspected February 13, 2013 and passed.

Public health officials suspect that the foods that are associated with the risk of developing illness include Turkish coffee pudding, pickled beet salad, grilled eggplant, ham, lamb, and Yukon potatoes. The age range for all of the events was 18 to 80 years old. Among all of the ill patrons who ate at Mulvaney’s restaurant, 52.4% were female and 47.6% were male.

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Posted in Food Hygiene, Food Illness, Food Inspections, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Poisoning, Food Safety, Food Testing, Food Virus, Foodborne Illness, Hand Washing, Hygiene, Illness, Laboratory, Microbiology, Norovirus, outbreak, Pathogen, Virus

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Pakistan – Polluted Water – Culltivated Vegetables – Hepatitis A

Posted on May 28, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Business Recorder

Cultivations of vegetables from polluted water in the outskirts of the city is posing serious public health hazard and authorities concerned are doing almost nothing to stop this practice. Experts believe that contaminated water, industrial waste and unhygienic food are causing a surge in the incidence of Hepatitis-A disease.

They said that different government and private hospitals reported that patients of Hepatitis-A were increasing. Experts feared that the situation was worsening in cities such as Karachi, Multan, Swat, and areas near Islamabad where the polluted water contaminated drinking water because of poor sanitation system.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had conducted tests in few areas and found them prone to Hepatitis-A. However, scores of areas are also affected with the same problem and continue to cause health hazards to people with infectious disease. Medical experts say that it is the responsibility of the government to providing clean drinking water to the citizens on a regular basis. Doctors advised patients to get vaccinated against Hepatitis-A as preventive measures.

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Posted in Bacteria, Food Hygiene, Food Illness, Food Inspections, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Poisoning, Food Safety, Food Testing, Food Virus, Foodborne Illness, Hepatitis A, Hygiene, Illness, Microbiology, Pathogen, Toxin, Water

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UK – Prom Night – Norovirus

Posted on May 19, 2013 by | Leave a comment

SKY Tyne and WearNorovirus

Two Northumbria University students who became ill after their graduation ball have tested positive for vomiting bug, norovirus.

Around 30 people complained of sickness after the event at the Assembly Rooms on May 10.

Experts from the North East Public Health England Centre are working with environmental health colleagues at Newcastle City Council to investigate the outbreak of diarrhoea and vomiting.

A spokesperson for Public Health England said: “Approximately 30 students who attended an event in Newcastle on 10 May have reported symptoms of illness.

“Two samples taken from students who were ill have tested positive for norovirus (also known as the winter vomiting bug) which is the most common cause of gastro-enteritis in England and Wales.”

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Posted in Food Hygiene, Food Illness, Food Inspections, Food Micro Blog, Food Safety, Food Safety Alert, Food Testing, Food Virus, Foodborne Illness, Hygiene, Illness, Microbiology, Norovirus, Pathogen, Virus

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Canada – Norovirus Top Food Poisoning Bug in Canada

Posted on May 19, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Food Poisoning BulletinNorwalk_Caspid

Norovirus causes about one fourth of all food poisoning cases in Canada each year, according to a new study published in the May issue of the journal Foodborne Pathogens and Disease. About 4 million Canadians, one in every eight, are sickened  by food poisoning each year, according to the study. Norovirus is also the leading cause of food poisoning in the U.S. where one in six people, or about 48 million, are stricken by foodborne illness each year.

The Canadian study looked at illnesses reported from a variety of sources including: the Canadian Notifiable Disease Surveillance System, the National Enteric Surveillance Program, enhanced national listeriosis surveillance, the provincial reportable disease surveillance system, national studies on gastrointestinal illness and C-EnterNet surveillance. Most of the illnesses reported, about 60 percent of them, were from unspecified agents.

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Posted in Food Hygiene, Food Illness, Food Inspections, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Poisoning, Food Safety, Food Safety Alert, Food Testing, Food Virus, Microbiology, Norovirus, outbreak, Pathogen, Research

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RASFF Alerts – Hepatitis A Oysters and Berries- ASP in Scallops- Enterococci in Dessciated Coconut

Posted on May 18, 2013 by | Leave a comment

RASFF – Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning (ASP) toxins in chilled scallops from France

RASFF – Hepatitis A virus in chilled oysters from France and the Netherlands

RASFF – Hepatitis A virus in frozen berry mix from Italy, with raw material from Bulgaria in Italy

RASFF – Faecal streptococci (17000 CFU/g) in desiccated coconut from Indonesia, via Malaysia in Italy

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Posted in Algal Toxin, ASP, Bacteria, Eurofins Laboratories, Faecal Streptpcocci, Food Chemistry, Food Hygiene, Food Illness, Food Inspections, Food Micro Blog, Food Poisoning, Food Safety, Food Safety Alert, Food Spoilage, Food Testing, Food Virus, Hepatitis A, Microbiology, Pathogen, Poisoning, Shellfish, Toxin, Virus

Research – Study Pinpoints Pathogens Causing Biggest Diarrhea Burden in Kids

Posted on May 15, 2013 by | Leave a comment

CIDRAP

While many pathogens cause serious diarrhea in children in developing countries, four stand out as culprits in most of the infections, a finding that could drive new prevention strategies, an international research team reported today.

The group spent 3 years in seven developing countries, collecting health information, lab samples, and outcome data on 3,439 youngsters who had moderate-to-severe diarrhea. They published their findings today in an early online release from The Lancet.

On a global scale each year, diarrheal diseases kill about 800,000 children under age 5, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia, according to the report.

Though interventions such as rotavirus vaccines are starting to have an impact on deaths and disease incidence, scientific data to guide other strategies to curb the diseases are scarce, especially in regions where child deaths are the highest, the group wrote.

To fill the gap, the team focused their analysis on kids under age 5 who did and didn’t have moderate-to-severe diarrhea in selected cities in Bangladesh, Gambia, India, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, and Pakistan. The study included 13,129 matched controls.

The researchers collected clinical and epidemiologic information, took anthropometric measurements, and took fecal samples to identify pathogens. For each child they made a follow-up home visit 60 days later to assess health status, clinical outcome, and growth measures.

Four pathogens were the most common causes of diarrhea across all sites: rotavirus, Cryptosporidium, enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) producing heat-stable toxin (ST), and Shigella, according to the study.

 

 

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Posted in Bacteria, Cryptosporidium, E.coli, E.coli O103, E.coli O104, E.coli O121, E.coli O145, E.coli O157, E.coli O26, EHEC, Food Hygiene, Food Illness, Food Micro Blog, Food Safety, Food Testing, Food Virus, Foodborne Illness, Hand Washing, Hygiene, Illness, Microbiology, O103, Pathogen, Research, Shigella, STEC

Research – Norovirus Killed by Electron Beam

Posted on May 13, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Food Poisoning Bulletin300px-Crassostrea_gigas_p1040848

Researchers at Texas A&M University have developed a way to pasteurize oysters without chemicals or heat using an electron beam. A study measuring the method’s efficacy on norovirus and hepatitis A appears in the June issue of the scientific journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

Although the CDC recommends that all shellfish be cooked to an internal temperature of 140˚, many people enjoy raw eating oysters raw. Pasteurization is one way to address the health risk of raw foods. And it’s one of the electron beam or E beam applications being explored at the National Center for Electron Beam Research at Texas A&M University.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has already approved E beam technology as a way to control Vibrio vulnificus, a naturally occurring bacteria in shellfish that can cause life- threatening illness or death. In this study, researchers measured E beam’s efficacy on different levels of viral concentration. They found that at high levels of contamination the E beam was able to reduce norovirus levels by 12 percent and hepatitis A levels by 16 percent and at more moderate levels of contamination the method was able to reduce norovirus by 26 percent and hepatitis A by 90 percent

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Posted in Food Hygiene, Food Inspections, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Technology, Food Testing, Food Virus, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis E, Illness, Methods, Microbiology, Norovirus, Pathogen, Research

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Research –

Posted on May 1, 2013 by | Leave a comment

HACCP Europa300px-Crassostrea_gigas_p1040848

According to the Centers for Disease Control, about one in six Americans gets food poisoning each year. Additionally, virus infection risks from consumption of raw oysters in the U.S. are estimated to cost around $200 million a year.

To address the issue of health risk from eating raw oysters, Texas A&M University graduate student Chandni Praveen, along with Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientist Dr. Suresh Pillai and a team of researchers from other agencies and institutions, studied how electron-beam pasteurization of raw oysters may reduce the possibility of food poisoning through virus.

Other entities involved in the study included the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and University of Texas School of Public Health-El Paso regional campus.

Pillai said that the study showed if a serving size of 12 raw oysters were contaminated with approximately 100 hepatitis A and human noroviruses, an e-beam dose of 5 kGy (kilograys) would achieve a 91 percent reduction of hepatitis A infection risks and a 26 percent reduction of norovirus infection risks. A kilogray is a unit of absorbed energy from ionizing radiation.

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Posted in Food Hygiene, Food Illness, Food Inspections, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Poisoning, Food Safety, Food Technology, Food Testing, Food Virus, Microbiology, Norovirus, Research, Virus

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Europe – Norovirus Ongoing Outbreak in Frozen Berries Report -Hepatitis A

Posted on April 26, 2013 by | Leave a comment

EurosurvaillanceClose up 3d render of an influenza-like virus isolated on white

A food-borne outbreak of hepatitis A in Denmark was notified to other countries on 1 March 2013. A case–control study identified frozen berries eaten in smoothies as potential vehicle. In the following weeks, Finland, Norway and Sweden also identified an increased number of hepatitis A patients without travel history. Most cases reported having eaten frozen berries at the time of exposure. By 17 April, 71 cases were notified in the four countries. No specific type of berry, brand or origin of berries has yet been identified.

As of 17 April 2013, 36 cases, of whom 15 were confirmed, have been identified in Finland, Norway and Sweden, giving a total of 71 cases in the four countries (Table 1). Finland and Norway have reported confirmed cases with sequence 1 and 2. In Sweden, two of the eight confirmed cases have an HAV IB sequence with 2% difference to sequence 1 and 1% difference to sequence 2 (called sequence 3).
The overall median age for cases and the median age for confirmed cases is 25 years (range: 3–78 years); 43 cases are female. In Norway and Sweden (but not Finland), more women are affected than men. The distribution of cases by month and HAV sequence type is shown in Figure 1. As of 17 April 2013, Sweden is the only country with cases with symptom onset in April. An increased number of travel-related hepatitis A patients in the same time period (Table 1) may be explained in part by patients infected in Egypt [1].

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Posted in Eurofins Laboratories, Food Hygiene, Food Illness, Food Inspections, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Poisoning, Food Safety, Food Safety Alert, Food Technology, Food Testing, Food Virus, Hepatitis A, Hygiene, Illness, Microbiology, outbreak, Pathogen, Research, Virus

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RASFF Alerts – Mould – E.coli – Norovirus – Hepatitis A – Aflatoxin

Posted on April 20, 2013 by | Leave a comment

RASFF – Foelie from Indonesia infested with moulds in the Netherlands

RASFF – High count of Escherichia coli (between 130 and 980 CFU/g) in fresh peppermint from Cambodia in Norway

RASFF – Hepatitis A virus (ongoing investigations) in mussels (Mitylus galloprovincialis) from Slovenia in Italy

RASFF – Norovirus (presence) in clams from Portugal in Spain

RASFF – Aflatoxins (B1 = 5.5 µg/kg – ppb) in satay sauce from Sweden

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Posted in Aflatoxin, Bacteria, Clams, E.coli, Food Hygiene, Food Inspections, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Safety, Food Safety Alert, Food Testing, Food Virus, Hand Washing, Hepatitis A, Hygiene, Microbiology, Moulds, Mycotoxin, Pathogen, RASFF, Recall

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