CONSUMPTION of fresh cut, ready-to-eat fruits (FCFs) processed and vended in open markets in Nigeria may constitute human health risks, causing food-borne diseases, due to microbial contamination, a study warns.
In the study, researchers had assessed pineapple and watermelon, which are among the commonest ready-to-eat fruits retailed and consumed regularly, including samples of fruit wash water and vendors’ hand, and found them heavily infested with different germs.
After a suspected Shigella outbreak that claimed the life of an 11-year old child in the city of Kozhikode, Kerala health prime minister KK Shailaja has stated that the aforementioned outbreak has been ‘under control’ by health authorities.
“An 11-year-old child died last week in Kozhikode. After that tests have been done for about fifty suspected cases and six have been infected. Now, only two are in the hospital while others have been discharged,” she said.
She further added that the Shigella bacteria is prevalent in densely populated areas, through contaminated water.
The health department has conducted an awareness campaign and set up medical camps. Wells in the area were chlorinated,” Shailaja commented, while stressing health authority directives that people should first boil their water before consuming.
Posted in Bacteria, bacterial contamination, Bore Hole Water, Contaminated water, Food Hygiene, Food Illness, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Testing, Food Pathogen, Food Safety, Food Safety Alert, Food Testing, Food Toxin, Shigella, Shigella flexneri, Shigella Sonnei, Water, water microbiology, Water Safety
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Townsville Public Health Unit is responding to a shigella outbreak at Richmond State School where there have been 12 confirmed cases.
Shigella infection is a serious form of gastroenteritis caused by a bacterium that attacks the intestines leading to diarrhea, abdominal pain or cramps and fever.
The illness is spread if you accidentally swallow the bacteria that is found in faeces, usually through not washing your hands properly after going to the toilet or changing diapers.
Townsville Public Health Unit physician, Dr Julie Mudd said additional cleaning was being undertaken at Richmond School today as it is closed for a public holiday.
Of the 12 cases, one was brought to Townsville University Hospital as a precaution and has since been discharged. The remaining 11 cases are recovering in the community.
Posted in outbreak, Shigatoxin, Shigella, Shigella flexneri, Shigella Sonnei
The Statens Serum Institut (SSI) has in collaboration with the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration and the DTU Food Institute report that a Shigella outbreak in August and September that sickened some 44 people is linked to fresh mint bought at a local greengrocer or bazaar in and around the Copenhagen area.
Of the 44 cases from August 22 to September 9, 30 of the cases was reported in women and 14 in men. A total of 13 people have been hospitalized. The sick live primarily in the Capital Region.
Because fresh mint has a short shelf life, it is no longer on the market. There is therefore no risk of more consumers becoming infected, says Emergency Manager Nikolas Kühn Hove from the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration.
Posted in Bacteria, bacterial contamination, food bourne outbreak, food contamination, food handler, Food Hygiene, Food Inspections, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Testing, Food Pathogen, Food Poisoning, food recall, Food Safety, Food Safety Alert, Food Testing, Food Toxin, Shigatoxin, Shigella, Shigella flexneri, Shigella Sonnei
In August and September, 44 Danes became ill with the intestinal bacterium shigella. The investigation shows that the source of infection was probably imported, fresh mint.
The Statens Serum Institut (SSI) has in collaboration with the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration and the DTU Food Institute investigated an outbreak of the intestinal bacterium shigella.
The outbreak includes 44 patients. These are 30 women and 14 men aged 0-75 years. The patients experienced symptoms in the period from 22.08.2020 to 09.09.2020. A total of 13 people have been hospitalized. The sick live primarily in the Capital Region.
Read more in EPI-News number 41/20 .
Posted in food bourne outbreak, food contamination, food handler, Food Hygiene, Food Inspections, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Testing, Food Pathogen, Food Poisoning, food recall, Food Safety, Food Safety Alert, Food Testing, Food Toxin, Shigatoxin, Shigella
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More than 40 people are sick and almost a third have needed hospital treatment as part of a foodborne Shigella outbreak in Denmark.
From the end of August, 42 people have been registered with shigellosis in the country.
The outbreak is being investigated to try to pinpoint the source of infection and help stop it with experts doing final traceback investigations ahead of plans to reveal results next week.
From Aug. 25 to Sept. 10, 42 cases of shigellosis were reported to the Statens Serum Institut (SSI).
Posted in Bacteria, bacterial contamination, Bacterial Toxin, food bourne outbreak, food contamination, Food Hygiene, Food Illness, Food Inspections, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Testing, Food Pathogen, Food Poisoning, Food Safety, Food Safety Alert, Food Testing, Food Toxin, foodborne outbreak, foodbourne outbreak, microbial contamination, Microbiology, Shigatoxin, Shigella
Infections caused by Shiga toxin (Stx)-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) are generally mild and self-limiting or even asymptomatic. However, particularly in children and elderly people, STEC infections can lead to severe gastroenteritis with haemorrhagic diarrhoea and life-threatening conditions, e.g. haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS) [1,2].
STEC transmission can occur through the consumption of contaminated food and drinks, or by direct contact with infected individuals or animals shedding the bacterium* [1,3–5]. STEC infections are endemic in Europe, including Switzerland [6,7]. Cases occur sporadically or in outbreaks; a large outbreak attributed to contaminated sprouts occurred in Germany in 2011 [8]. Smaller outbreaks have also been reported, e.g. there was an outbreak in Italy in 2013 and in Romania in 2016, both were suspected to be caused by contaminated dairy products [9,10]. Considering 22 years of population-based data up to 2012, Majowicz et al. estimated in 2014 that STEC leads to an estimated 2.8 million illness cases per year, including 3,800 cases of HUS, globally [11].
The National Notification System for Infectious Diseases (NNSID) of the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) has been receiving all notifications of laboratory-confirmed STEC infections since 1999. Case numbers were generally constant until 2010, with only a few laboratories reporting STEC cases in Switzerland. An increase in cases was observed in 2011 following the outbreak in Germany, before returning to expected yearly fluctuations, and then markedly increasing since 2015 [12]. Given that this increase was observed around the same time as the introduction of syndromic multiplex PCR panels for stool analyses in standard laboratory practice in Switzerland [12], it was hypothesised that these panels were the cause of the increase in notified STEC cases. Traditionally, routine testing of stool samples for bacterial pathogens involved only Campylobacter spp., Salmonella spp. and Shigella spp. using culture-based techniques. With syndromic multiplex PCR panels, stool samples can be tested for up to 22 pathogens, including STEC, in one single run [12,13].
Prior to the gradual introduction of multiplex PCR to the routine diagnostics between 2014 and 2015, STEC was only specifically tested for in Switzerland upon physician request, and this rarely happened. Current testing practice includes the use of small syndromic enteric bacterial panels for testing in patients without a travel history or a larger gastrointestinal panel if travel history is reported on the test order form [7].
A qualitative assessment found that Swiss laboratory experts uniformly agreed that the increase in STEC case numbers was due to the introduction and increasing use of multiplex PCR panels [7]. We set out to conduct a quantitative investigation as to whether an increase in the STEC testing rate associated with the use of the panels is what led to the increased notification of cases.
Our study assesses the development of the STEC positivity in the Swiss population between 2007 and 2016 using routine laboratory data, and gives insight into the epidemiology and notification numbers of STEC infections in Switzerland.
Posted in Bacteria, bacterial contamination, Bacterial Toxin, Campylobacter, cross contamination, E.coli, E.coli O157, E.coli O157:H7, eae, food contamination, Food Hygiene, Food Inspections, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Research, Food Microbiology Testing, Food Pathogen, Food Poisoning, Food Poisoning Death, food recall, Food Safety, Food Safety Alert, Food Testing, Food Toxin, microbial contamination, Microbiology, Pathogen, Salmonella, Shigella, Shigella flexneri, Shigella Sonnei, STEC, STEC E.coli, STX 1, STX 2
Posted in Bacteria, bacterial contamination, Bacterial Toxin, Biotoxin, food contamination, food handler, Food Hygiene, Food Illness, Food Inspections, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Research, Food Microbiology Testing, Food Pathogen, Food Poisoning, food recall, Food Safety, Food Safety Alert, Food Temperature Abuse, Food Testing, Food Toxin, foodborne outbreak, foodbourne outbreak, microbial contamination, Microbiology, Shigatoxin, Shigella, Shigella flexneri, Shigella Sonnei
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Shigellosis is a relatively uncommon disease in the European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA), but remains of concern in some countries and for some population groups. For 2017, 30 EU/EEA countries reported 6 337 confirmed shigellosis cases. The overall notification rate was 1.7 cases per 100 000 population, slightly higher than in 2016. The highest notification rate was observed in children below five years of age, followed by male adults aged 25–44 years. Sexual transmission of shigellosis among men who have sex with men (MSM) is thought to have contributed to the gender imbalance in the latter group.
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Multnomah County health officials have closed the Small Pharaoh #1 food cart in downtown Portland (SW 5th and Stark) late Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2020 after linking the business to an outbreak of shigellosis. This is the first food cart closure in Multnomah County in many years due to health concerns. Food carts are inspected, regulated and scored the same as brick and mortar restaurants.
Health officials took the unusual step of ordering the closure of the food cart at 5th and SW Stark after several individuals from different households were confirmed to have shigellosis after eating food from the facility. Four cases have been confirmed with three additional presumptive cases with symptoms who have not been tested. Shigella is a very contagious bacteria and can spread after swallowing a very small amount of the bacteria.
Anyone with symptoms of shigellosis who ate at the downtown location of Small Pharaoh between July 27 and August 11 should contact their care provider or seek medical care as needed.
Posted in food bourne outbreak, food contamination, Food Hygiene, Food Illness, Food Inspections, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Microbiology Testing, Food Pathogen, Food Poisoning, food recall, Food Safety, Food Safety Alert, Food Testing, Food Toxin, foodborne outbreak, foodbourne outbreak, outbreak, Shigatoxin, Shigella, Shigella flexneri, Shigella Sonnei, Uncategorized
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