At least 55 children and their teachers became violently ill with nausea, vomiting, dehydration and diarrhea during a three-day stay at the Borambola Sport and Recreation Centre in New South Wales, Australia.
Eleven ambulances from across the region and medical staff from Wagga Base Hospital were called to the center.
Initially the number of those affected was only small, but it quickly became apparent it was highly contagious with about 55 falling ill over the course of just a few hours.
The Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH), or the Folkehelseinstituttet reported an outbreak during the month of November caused by a relatively rare strain of the salmonella bacteria, according to a news release this week .
The outbreak of Salmonella Coeln has sickened at least 18 people in several counties (Oslo, Rogaland, Akershus, Nordland Oppland Oslo, Troms, Rogaland, Hordaland, Western College and Østfold) across the country.
Flat Creek Farm & Dairy of Georgia is recalling 200 pounds of Heavenly blue cheese because of possible Salmonella enteritidis contamination. As of yesterday, more than 90% of the product has been collected or destroyed. No illnesses have been reported to date.
The cheese is packed in clear plastic and ranges in sizes from 1/2 pound to whole wheels. The lot code is 130912XHB on the front of the package. It was distributed in certain parts of Alabama, Georgia, and Florida and via three online orders, which have all been notified.
Twenty-two pre-school children have developed symptoms of shiga-toxin producing E. coli, with 12 confirmed and three hospitalized with hemolytic uremic syndrome.
As for the child discharged yesterday, he went back home with family in the
As yet, there is no word on the source of the outbreak.
In a prior APHLTech blog post (NGS in Action: FDA’s Genome TRAKR Network), Victor Waddell of the Arizona State Public Health Laboratory described the newly formed network of laboratories formed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Known collectively as Genome TRAKR, the member laboratories perform whole genome sequencing (WGS) on bacterial foodborne pathogens isolated primarily from food and environmental sources.
On September 1, 2013, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began a partnership with the FDA GenomeTRAKR network to utilize the network to conduct WGS of all Listeria monocytogenes collected from reported human illness cases in the United States. This effort leverages public health resources to evaluate and potentially move this promising new technology forward for more routine use in public health laboratories nationwide.
A recent Estates and Facilities Alert issued by Health Facilities Scotland (HFS) has noted that contamination of water supplies was found in two recent projects within NHS Scotland. Extensive testing traced the source to the cold water storage tanks which gave TVC (Total Viable Count) readings for Pseudomonas in excess of 500cfu/100ml (after 72-hour incubation). TVC readings fell to 0cfu/100ml immediately after disinfecting the tanks but had reverted to high levels at later re-testing.
Posted in Bacteria, Food Hygiene, Food Inspections, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Safety, Food Testing, Health Protection England, Hygiene, Laboratory, Microbiology, Pseudomonas, Research, Total Viable Count, Water
Tagged Health Facilities Scotland, Health Protection Scotland, NHS Scotland
RASFF – aflatoxins (B1 = 76.0; Total = 130.3 µg/kg – ppb) in dried figs from Turkey in France
RASFF -aflatoxins (B1 = 8; Tot. = 21 µg/kg – ppb) in dried fruit mix (fig, date & apricot) from Turkey in Denmark
RASFF -aflatoxins (B1 = 11.09; Tot. = 12.34 µg/kg – ppb) in dried figs from Turkey in Germany
RASFF – ochratoxin A (330 µg/kg – ppb) in dried figs from Turkey, via Slovakia in Austria
The Maricopa County Department of Public Health (MCDPH)’s report of its investigation of an Escherichia coli O157:H7 outbreak in which 94 ill persons were identified was released today.
