Category Archives: outbreak

UK – FSA – Curry Leaves Reminder – Salmonella

FSAfood_standards_agency_logo

The Food Standards Agency is reminding those who eat or use fresh curry leaves in their dishes, to ensure that the leaves are washed thoroughly before use. Cooking provides further assurance that these leaves are safe to eat.

The use of uncooked fresh curry leaves, which were contaminated with several different bacteria including salmonella, was the cause of a food poisoning outbreak which affected more than 400 people at the Street Spice festival in Newcastle. Further information on the recent Newcastle City Council and Public Health England investigation into this incident can be found on the PHE website. See ‘External sites’ links.

USA – Legionnaires Outbreak – Fitness Center

Food Poisoning BulletinLegionella_Plate_01

Three people reported contracting Legionnaires’ disease after visiting the 24 Hour Fitness on Ridgeway Road in East Memphis, Tennessee. The gym’s spa and pool are now closed pending an investigation by the Shelby County Health Department. Legionnaires’ disease, a form of pneumonia, is caused by breathing in water mist contaminated with Legionella bacteria.

Anyone who was at the 24 Hour Fitness on Ridgeway Road in the last 2 weeks should watch for symptoms of Legionnaires’ disease, including cough, fever, muscle aches, vomiting and diarrhea. This is a severe illness that is often fatal.

India – Food Poisoning 56 University Students

The New Indian Expressimages

Around 56 students of  the women’s hostel of the Kerala University’s Kariavattom campus had to be taken to Medical College hospital after suspected food poisoning.

According to Medical College Hospital authorities,  none of the students is in a serious condition.

The students developed uneasiness and some of them vomited after having dinner, reportedly rice and fish curry, served at the hostel mess.

The hostel was shifted to a new building two weeks ago and students allege that the mess was not being run in hygienic conditions.  Most of the students were discharged from the hospital after being administered first aid.

UK – Curry Leaves cause Salmonella Outbreak 400 People

The Guardian

Uncooked curry leaves in a chutney left more than 400 people who ate at a street food festival with diarrhoea and vomiting or salmonella poisoning, health officials have found.

The leaves were contaminated with several different bacteria, experts found, which led to 29 confirmed cases of salmonella at the Street Spice festival in Newcastle in February and March.

An investigation by Public Health England (PHE) and Newcastle city council found 25 of the 29 cases had developed a strain of salmonella never found in people or food in Britain before.

According to an official report, further laboratory analysis suggested other organisms may also have caused illness including E coli and shigella.

Some of the 413 affected were found to have more than one of these infections at the same time.

No one will face prosecution because there was seen to be a lack of clear advice about the dangers of using raw curry leaves in recipes, and in general hygiene levels at the three-day event were good.

Africa and EU – Rise in Antibiotic Resistance in Salmonella

Food Safety News

Strains of one increasingly antibiotic-resistant Salmonella serotype have seen a “rapid worldwide spread,” according to a study published by researchers at the Institut Pasteur in Paris and Morocco.

Antibiotic-resistant Salmonella Kentucky, first isolated in 2002 in a French tourist who had visited Egypt, has now “spread at an astonishing rate throughout Africa and the Middle East in the space of only a few years,” the study’s authors claim.

The bacterium has also already been found in farmed-raised turkeys in Europe, though it is not clear based on available information if those turkeys were imported or grown domestically. In a summary of the study, the lead author said he worries that the resistant strain may soon spread to European poultry farms.

This study comes on the heels of a report out of Canada calling antibiotic-resistant Salmonella Kentucky a rare but “growing concern” in Canadian health. That study found that between 2003 and 2009, 30 percent of Salmonella Kentucky isolates from Canadian patients were resistant to the antibiotic ciprofloxacin.

China – Outbrake 386 Children – Salmonella the Cause

Food Safety NewsSalmonella

At least 386 children in a Chinese province were hospitalized last week with suspected Salmonella infections, health officials announced Sunday.

The students, who reside in the Meishan City area of Sichuan province, fell ill at the end of last week with symptoms of nausea, vomiting, fatigue and dizziness. Chinese health authorities eventually determined that their illnesses were caused by Salmonella.

USA – Hepatitis A Outbreak Grows

Food Safety NewsNorovirus

The Hepatitis A outbreak continues in eight western states with the case count as of June 14 rising to 106. The illnesses are blamed on an organic blend of frozen berries and pomegranate seeds from multiple countries.  Produced by Oregon-based Townsend Farms and sold at Costco and Harris Teeter stores, the frozen berry blend has caused Hepatitis A cases in Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Washington.

In an update today on its investigation, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta profiled the cases based on available epidemiologic data from 94 of the 106 cases under investigation:

76 of 94 (81 percent) ill people interviewed reported eating “Townsend Farms Organic Anti-Oxidant Blend” frozen berry and pomegranate mix

USA – More Than Just Burgers and Beer – Campylobacter

Campylobacter BlogCampylobacter

Bacterial contamination was being blamed Monday for an outbreak of foodborne illness following the popular Burger & Beer Bash in Westchester County earlier this month.

The county Health Department said Monday that the campylobacter bacterium was to blame for the outbreak at the June 6 outdoor food festival at the Kenisco Dam in Valhalla.

The bacterium was identified through tests on samples from several people who got sick at the event. The department did not specify exactly how many people were sickened.

But health officials have not determined the source of the bacteria, since most attendees ate food from many of the 30 different vendors at the event, the department said. The department has launched an investigation and has been interviewing people in an effort to trace the source.

 

UK – Food Poisoning Begins at Home?

Haringey IndependantiStock_000012710183Small

Most cases of food poisoning happen when cooking at home, according to Haringey Borough Council.

The authority’s food safety teams, part of the Food Standards Agency, investigated 210 complaints of food poisoning but found no evidence to link them to eating out.

This suggested that most incidents were a result of poor food hygiene while cooking at home.

According to council figures, 40 per cent of the cases were caused by Campylobacter – a bacterium commonly found in raw or undercooked meat, especially poultry, unpasteurised milk, untreated water and domestic pets with diarrhoea.

China – 160 Sickened Suspected Food Poisoning

English News ChinaStaphylococcus

GUANGZHOU, June 12 (Xinhua) — A total of 160 staff from a food company in south China’s Guangdong Province were suspected of suffering from food poisoning, a company source said on Wednesday.

They had symptoms of chills, fever, nausea, vomiting, stomach ache and diarrhea after having dinner at the third canteen of the Dongguan Hsu Chi Food Co. Ltd based in Dongguan City on Monday, said Sun Tianzhen, a media relations officer of Hsu Fu Chi International Ltd. told Xinhua.

Dongguan Hsu Chi Food Co. Ltd. is a subsidiary of Hsu Fu Chi International Ltd.

A 57-year-old female plate washer at the canteen was found dead at her dormitory on Tuesday but it is yet to know whether her death is connected with food poisoning or not, said Sun.