Category Archives: foodbourne outbreak

Research – E. coli in milk behind large outbreak in Japan

Posted on October 23, 2023 by | Leave a comment

Food Safety News

Researchers have provided insight into a large outbreak in Japan linked to milk served in schools.

The E. coli outbreak in June 2021 involved more than 1,800 cases from 25 schools, but no deaths were recorded.

The O antigens of most E. coli isolates were untypable (OUT). Although major foodborne toxins and pathogens were not detected, a specific E. coli strain, serotype OUT (OgGp9): H18, was isolated from milk samples related to the outbreak and tested patients. Strains from milk and patient stool samples were identified as the exact clone.

Milk cartons were part of school lunches in June 2021 in Toyama City, Japan. According to the study published in the journal Epidemiology and Infection, Pasteurized milk was produced by the T milk factory.

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Posted in E.coli, food bourne outbreak, Food Microbiology Research, foodborne outbreak, foodbourne outbreak, outbreak, Research

Research – Report highlights deadly botulism outbreak in France

Posted on October 21, 2023 by | Leave a comment

CIDRAP

Yesterday in Eurosurveillance, investigators report on an outbreak of 15 cases of botulism poisoning, including 1 death, last month during the Rugby World Cup held in Bordeaux, France.

The authors present the clinical case descriptions of eight patient seen at the Bordeaux University Hospital, where the first patient treated in the outbreak was admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) on September 6. That patient required mechanical ventilation and experienced a number of severe symptoms, including eye drooping, impaired swallowing, and oculomotor palsy—in which the affected eye does not track correctly.

“Because of the neurological symptoms, the patient was initially treated for Guillain–Barré syndrome, but botulism was also suspected,” the authors staid. Over the next 4 days, two more patients arrived at the hospital with similar neuro-ophthalmic symptoms and required ICU care.

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Posted in botulism, Clostridium botulinum, food bourne outbreak, Food Microbiology Research, Food Poisoning, foodborne outbreak, foodbourne outbreak, outbreak, Poisoning, Research

Research – Annual report concerning Foodborne Diseases in New Zealand 2022

Posted on October 20, 2023 by | Leave a comment

NZFS

Human health surveillance and its relationship to foodborne illness is essential for informing
the strategic direction that New Zealand Food Safety (NZFS) takes and regulatory measures
it puts in place to minimise foodborne illness in New Zealand and overseas consumers. The
annual ESR foodborne disease reports are critical, allowing NZFS to monitor trends in
foodborne illness in New Zealand by describing in a consistent manner evidence from case
notifications, case enquiries, outbreak investigations, and other epidemiological studies of
human enteric disease.
This report is the latest in a series providing a consistent source of data annually to monitor
trends in foodborne illness in New Zealand. The series can be found here.
When reading these reports, it is necessary to bear in mind that notified cases of illness
represent only a subset of all the cases that occur in New Zealand each year.
• Many sick individuals do not visit a GP or otherwise come to the attention of the
health system.
• Multiple factors (e.g., change in sensitivity of testing methods, proportion of human
faecal specimens being tested) affect the notification rates on top of any underlying
changes to disease incidence happening in New Zealand. Some cases notified in
New Zealand are due to exposure to a pathogen or toxin while they were overseas.
Most cases of foodborne diseases in New Zealand are sporadic, which makes attribution to a
source or event difficult. In contrast, outbreaks offer a better opportunity to identify the source
and most of the 271 outbreaks (253 cases) of potential foodborne disease in 2022 were
associated with commercial food operators and only five outbreaks in 2022 were associated
with food prepared in consumer’s homes. Despite robust investigation, some outbreaks
reported as “foodborne with an unidentified food source” could also be attributed to other
routes of transmission, such as water, animal contact, or person to person contact.
Listeriosis is perhaps the only disease fully attributable to consumption of contaminated food.
Campylobacteriosis, yersiniosis, infection by shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC), and
salmonellosis remain the predominant notified foodborne illnesses. Notification rates per
100,000 population are generally stable, being highest for very young children (0 to 4 years
age group) and for elderly people (70+ years)

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Posted in Campylobacter, food bourne outbreak, Food Illness, Food Microbiology Research, Food Pathogen, Foodborne Illness, foodborne outbreak, foodbourne outbreak, Illness, outbreak, Pathogen, pathogenic, Research, STEC, STEC E.coli, Yersinia

Fatal Spanish Salmonella outbreak under investigation

Posted on October 19, 2023 by | Leave a comment

Food Safety News

More information has come to light about a deadly outbreak of Salmonella in Spain in 2022.

The outbreak occurred at the Geriàtric Aragó care home in Barcelona. According to officials, it started in July 2022 and affected 39 residents, of which 15 were hospitalized and eight died.

Additional information was revealed in documents from the Parliament of Catalonia in response to a question on action taken by the Departament de Drets Socials (Department of Social Rights).

An investigation is ongoing by the Fiscalía Provincial de Barcelona, the local prosecutor’s office.

In March 2022, an inspection was carried out to collect information concerning a complaint submitted in February by a resident’s family. No irregularities were detected from the documentation and observations made during the visit. Another check was undertaken in May due to a separate complaint, but no related non-compliances were found.

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Posted in food bourne outbreak, Food Illness, Foodborne Illness, Foodborne Illness Death, foodborne outbreak, foodbourne outbreak, Illness, outbreak, Salmonella

USA – FDA Core Outbreak Table

Posted on October 19, 2023 by | Leave a comment

FDA

What’s New

  • For the outbreak of Salmonella Thompson (ref #1190) linked to a not yet identified product, the case count has increased from 67 to 72.

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Posted in FDA, food bourne outbreak, Food Illness, Foodborne Illness, foodborne outbreak, foodbourne outbreak, Illness, outbreak, Salmonella

Research – Epidemiological Data Mining for Assisting with Foodborne Outbreak Investigation

Posted on October 19, 2023 by | Leave a comment

MDPI

Abstract

Diseases caused by the consumption of food are a significant but avoidable public health issue, and identifying the source of contamination is a key step in an outbreak investigation to prevent foodborne illnesses. Historical foodborne outbreaks provide rich data on critical attributes such as outbreak factors, food vehicles, and etiologies, and an improved understanding of the relationships between these attributes could provide insights for developing effective food safety interventions. The purpose of this study was to identify hidden patterns underlying the relations between the critical attributes involved in historical foodborne outbreaks through data mining approaches. A statistical analysis was used to identify the associations between outbreak factors and food sources, and the factors that were strongly significant were selected as predictive factors for food vehicles. A multinomial prediction model was built based on factors selected for predicting “simple” foods (beef, dairy, and vegetables) as sources of outbreaks. In addition, the relations between the food vehicles and common etiologies were investigated through text mining approaches (support vector machines, logistic regression, random forest, and naïve Bayes). A support vector machine model was identified as the optimal model to predict etiologies from the occurrence of food vehicles. Association rules also indicated the specific food vehicles that have strong relations to the etiologies. Meanwhile, a food ingredient network describing the relationships between foods and ingredients was constructed and used with Monte Carlo simulation to predict possible ingredients from foods that cause an outbreak. The simulated results were confirmed with foods and ingredients that are already known to cause historical foodborne outbreaks. The method could provide insights into the prediction of the possible ingredient sources of contamination when given the name of a food. The results could provide insights into the early identification of food sources of contamination and assist in future outbreak investigations. The data-driven approach will provide a new perspective and strategies for discovering hidden knowledge from massive data.

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Posted in food bourne outbreak, foodborne outbreak, foodbourne outbreak

France Two people in deadly Botulism outbreak remain in hospital

Posted on October 18, 2023 by | Leave a comment

Food Safety News

According to researchers, at least two patients in a botulism outbreak in France remain in hospital.

The study covered eight individuals from four countries admitted to the intensive care unit at Bordeaux University Hospital, where six required invasive mechanical ventilation. Cases reported consuming locally produced canned sardines at a Tchin Tchin Wine Bar restaurant.

As of Oct. 12, six of them had been discharged, but two people still needed mechanical ventilation, according to the study published in the journal Eurosurveillance.

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Posted in Clostridium, Clostridium botulinum, food bourne outbreak, Food Illness, Food Microbiology Research, Food Poisoning, Foodborne Illness, foodborne outbreak, foodbourne outbreak, Illness, outbreak, Poisoning, Research

Ireland – Rise in travel-related Cryptosporidium cases prompts warning

Posted on October 17, 2023 by | Leave a comment

Food Safety News

Irish health officials have issued a warning after recording a rise in cryptosporidium infections in people returning from abroad.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) in Ireland said increased levels of cryptosporidiosis have been reported from areas of Spain, including Salou in Catalonia, in the past month. A parasite causes the infection, and symptoms include diarrhea and vomiting.

The agency advised people to take extra hygiene precautions when traveling overseas.

There has been a widespread increase in cryptosporidiosis in Europe in August and September that has been attributed to extreme weather in Europe, primarily Mediterranean countries, over the summer.

More than 50 people have fallen sick, with 37 lab-confirmed cases. So far this year, 656 infections have been reported in Ireland compared to 510 in the same period in 2022.

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Posted in Cryptosporidiosis, Cryptosporidium, food bourne outbreak, Food Illness, Foodborne Illness, foodborne outbreak, foodbourne outbreak, Illness, outbreak

Kenya – 174 Students Of Amabuko Secondary School Hospitalised With Stomach Pains, Diarrhoea

Posted on October 17, 2023 by | Leave a comment

Citizen Digital

A total of 174 students from Amabuko Secondary School in Masaba, Kisii County, have been admitted to hospital, with school Principal Rawlings Juma confirming that the students had diarrhea and vomiting symptoms.According to reports, 23 students were treated at Keroka Sub County Hospital for severe stomach pains, with an additional 76 students admitted to Gucha Maternity Hospital and 55 others admitted to St Catherine Ichuni Mission Hospital, all of whom were experiencing similar symptoms.

While the exact cause of the illness is unknown, food poisoning is suspected due to a meal consumed by the students on Sunday night.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), common symptoms of food poisoning, including diarrhea, stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, and fever.

Reports indicate that the students who consumed a meal of kale during supper are among those affected, while their peers who had cabbage appeared unaffected .

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Posted in food bourne outbreak, food contamination, Food Hazard, Food Illness, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Foodborne Illness, foodborne outbreak, foodbourne outbreak, Illness, outbreak

USA- Virgin Voyages’ Scarlet Lady reports gastroenteritis on cruise ending today – Norovirus?

Posted on October 16, 2023 by | Leave a comment

Sea Trade

During Scarlet Lady’s current five-day cruise, just above 3% of passengers experienced symptoms of acute gastroenteritis, commonly referred to as stomach flu.

‘Our medical team isolated these travelers, and we immediately enacted enhanced sanitization procedures including additional cleaning of cabins and high-contact areas around the ship,’ a Virgin Voyages spokesperson said. ‘We are working closely with the CDC and their medical professionals. There is currently no impact to the upcoming voyage’s departure time or ports of call.’

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Posted in Food Virus, foodborne outbreak, foodbourne outbreak, gastroenteritis, Gastrointestinal Infection, Norovirus, Norovirus Cruise, outbreak, Virus