Federal health officials report investigating a norovirus outbreak onboard Royal Caribbean International vessel, Grandeur of the Seas.
The outbreak on the March 7–March 19, 2020 voyage has sickened 83 passengers and six crew members, who developed symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea.
Specimens have been collected, tested onboard, and found to be positive for norovirus. The specimens will be sent to CDC for genome sequencing.
March 13th, 2020, WinCo Foods, LLC. of Boise, ID is recalling frozen Blackberries in a 16 oz. bag and frozen Berry Medley in 16 oz. and 32 oz. bags, manufactured by Rader Farms of Lynden, WA, because both products have the potential to be contaminated with Norovirus. Norovirus is a highly contagious virus. Typical symptoms of norovirus infection are acute onset of vomiting, watery, non-bloody diarrhea with abdominal cramps, and nausea. Systemic manifestations include, fever, myalgia and malaise, anorexia, and headache. Although most symptoms end within 48 hours, the elderly, young children and immunocompromised persons may develop prolonged or more severe symptoms.
WinCo Foods has removed the recalled products from store shelves.
The FSA Board has welcomed a report which presents new comprehensive estimates of the societal burden caused by foodborne illnesses in the UK.
The outcome of an extensive programme of work conducted over a five-year period was scrutinised by Members at the FSA Board Meeting, and provides a more in depth understanding of the wider impacts of foodborne diseases such as norovirus, campylobacter and listeria.
For the first time, the study also incorporates estimates based on the impacts of foodborne illness cases where a specific pathogen is not identified, often as a result of people not seeking medical attention.
The new model which produced the estimates follows an established process used in the UK and internationally to assess the financial impacts and the ‘human costs’ such as pain grief and suffering and changes to quality and length of life.
Estimates for these ‘human costs’ were developed in part by surveying more than 4,000 people to produce monetised values to measure the impact of different foodborne pathogens.
This will allow for these intangible human impacts to be considered alongside financial impacts when decisions relating to foodborne illnesses are made.
The model shows that for 2018:
The Board welcomed the work and the report’s findings which provides the FSA with a more robust and comprehensive awareness of the impact of all foodborne illnesses and an additional tool to direct future decisions on prevention.
Heather Hancock, Chair of The Food Standards Agency said:
“I welcome this vital new research. Being able to put a cost on the personal, social and economic burden when someone becomes ill as a result of food, represents a milestone for the FSA.
“We will use this new analysis of the cost of illness, and how it varies between different germs, to help set our priorities for tackling foodborne illness and to focus the FSA’s expertise, money and influence.”
Professor Rick Mumford, Head of Science Evidence and Research at the Food Standards Agency said:
“For the first time this model gives the FSA and other partners a much more detailed picture of how foodborne illnesses can impact society.
“We have designed it from the ground up to measure the impacts of specific pathogens as well as for the first time providing an estimate of the majority of cases where no pathogen is attributed.
“As a result, we are now equipped with robust, quantitative evidence on the impact of foodborne disease which significantly strengthens our decision-making ability.”
Richard Smith, Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor and Professor of Health Economics at the University of Exeter said:
“Providing an understanding of the impact of foodborne disease on individuals and wider society is a critical building block to understanding where and how to best deal with it.
“The FSA has a rich history of developing such analyses, and this latest work builds on that with significant revisions and updates to provide the most robust values yet of the societal impact of foodborne disease.
“This provides a robust, powerful and flexible tool to assist FSA in determining its priorities for tackling foodborne disease, which remains a serious challenge for our society.”
FSA economists worked with academics from leading UK universities to develop the Cost of Illness (COI) model to identify and measure all the costs of a particular disease.
The model is loosely based on the Health and Safety Executive (HSE)’s Cost to Britain model (Opens in a new window)which estimates the annual cost of workplace fatalities, self-reported injuries and ill health at £15bn.
This new model was quality assured internally and externally by independent experts and represents a significant improvement from the previous, much simpler model used to estimate the burden of foodborne illness. Further work is currently ongoing to apply these methodologies to other areas, including food allergy and hypersensitivity.
The Burden of Foodborne Disease in the UK 2018 Report
Comparisons to previous estimates is not possible as this is the first time that the FSA have estimated the total burden of foodborne illness.
This estimate is therefore inevitably greater than the estimates for identifiable cases alone for the following reasons:
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Federal health officials report investigating an outbreak of diarrhea among passengers and crew onboard Holland America Line vessel, Westerdam’s March 1–March 16, 2020 voyage.
According to officials, 21 of 680 passengers and one of the crew members have been sickened.
The etiology of the outbreak has not been identified.
Ottawa, March 1, 2020 – La Mer is recalling certain Les Huîtres Cadoret – La Perle Noire brand #4 oysters from the marketplace due to possible norovirus. Consumers should not consume the recalled product described below.
| Brand | Product | Size | UPC | Codes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Les Huîtres Cadoret – La Perle Noire | “Huitres speciales #4 Cadoret Perles Noires 24 CT – France“ | 24 count | 0 209656 067997 | “Emballe le” 13.FE.20 |
| Les Huîtres Cadoret – La Perle Noire | “Huitres speciales #4 Cadoret Perles Noires 12 CT – France“ | 12 count | 0 209656 034996 | “Emballe le” 13.FE.20 |
If you think you became sick from consuming a recalled product, call your doctor.
Check to see if you have the recalled products in your home. Recalled products should be thrown out or returned to the store where they were purchased.
People with norovirus illness usually develop symptoms of gastroenteritis within 24 to 48 hours, but symptoms can start as early as 12 hours after exposure. The illness often begins suddenly. Even after having the illness, you can still become re-infected by norovirus. The main symptoms of norovirus illness are diarrhea, vomiting (children usually experience more vomiting than adults), nausea and stomach cramps. Other symptoms may include low-grade fever, headache, chills, muscle aches and fatigue (a general sense of tiredness). Most people feel better within one or two days, with symptoms resolving on their own, and experience no long-term health effects. As with any illness causing diarrhea or vomiting, people who are ill should drink plenty of liquids to replace lost body fluids and prevent dehydration. In severe cases, patients may need to be hospitalized and given fluids intravenously.
This recall was triggered by a consumer complaint. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is conducting a food safety investigation, which may lead to the recall of other products. If other high-risk products are recalled, the CFIA will notify the public through updated Food Recall Warnings.
The CFIA is verifying that industry is removing the recalled products from the marketplace.
There have been reported illnesses associated with the consumption of these products.
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Food Service Equipment Journal
According to the FSA, there are an estimated 380,000 cases of norovirus linked to food occur in the UK per year.
A breakdown of the roles of the main transmission pathways in food suggest eating out accounts for an estimated 37% of all foodborne norovirus cases and takeaways at 26%.
Open-headed lettuce on retail sale at 30%, raspberries on retail sale at 4%, and oysters on retail sale at 3% make up the remainder.
The revised foodborne norovirus estimate, combined with better analysis of how many illnesses of unknown cause are also likely to be caused by food, suggest around 2.4 million estimated UK cases of foodborne illness occur each year.
Professor Guy Poppy, chief scientific adviser to the Food Standards Agency, said: “This work gives us a much better idea of the role of food in the spread of all infectious intestinal disease in the UK. However, this does not mean more people are getting unwell, only that we estimate food is responsible for more existing cases than previously thought.
Fresh produce is a major vehicle for noroviruses, a group of viruses that are the most common cause of gastroenteritis in developed countries. However, the viruses are quite resistant to cold pasteurization treatments such as irradiation, which are used to destroy bacteria, moulds, parasites, and insects. The irradiation process uses gamma rays or X-rays to destroy these viruses but at the dose needed to eliminate them, it can affect the physicochemical properties of fresh produce.
Professor Monique Lacroix, a researcher at Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS), has developed an edible coating based on cranberry juice and citrus extract that makes noroviruses more sensitive to gamma irradiation, making it possible to eliminate them while preserving the quality of food, all without risk to consumers.
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