MECKLENBURG COUNTY — The Mecklenburg County Health Department believes norovirus is what caused customers and employees at Cowfish Sushi Bar and Grill to become sick.
Twenty-one employees and 34 customers reported flu-like symptoms, prompting the restaurant to close Saturday.
They have since sanitized and are back open.
The Health Department says it could have been passed on any number of ways.
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A public health body says it will not name a Cardiff restaurant at the centre of a food poisoning outbreak.
Public Health Wales says it is “satisfied” that the situation – which led to seven people being confirmed with the campylobacter infection – has been dealt with and there is “no risk to public health.”
The victims ate at the restaurant during the weekend of May 16, and two people are also suspected to have the infection.
Related stories: Cardiff restaurant closed after food poisoning outbreak
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Between December 2010 and July 2011, 252 cases of STEC O157 PT8 stx1 + 2 infection were reported in England, Scotland and Wales. This was the largest outbreak of STEC reported in England and the second largest in the UK to date. Eighty cases were hospitalized, with two cases of haemolytic uraemic syndrome and one death reported. Routine investigative data were used to generate a hypothesis but the subsequent case-control study was inconclusive. A second, more detailed, hypothesis generation exercise identified consumption or handling of vegetables as a potential mode of transmission. A second case-control study demonstrated that cases were more likely than controls to live in households whose members handled or prepared leeks bought unwrapped [odds ratio (OR) 40, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2·08-769·4], and potatoes bought in sacks (OR 13·13, 95% CI 1·19-145·3). This appears to be the first outbreak of STEC O157 infection linked to the handling of leeks.
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Food Alert – (*updated on 5 June 2015) French raw sheep’s milk cheese suspected to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes
| Issue Date | 2015-05-07 | |
| Source of Information | Notification from the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) of the European Commission | |
| Food Product | Raw sheep’s milk cheese | |
| Name of Importer | ||
| Product name and Description | Product name: Raw milk cheese from sheep “PERAIL” Place of origin: France Manufacture date: between March 15 and April 2, 2015 Best before dates: May 23, 29 or 30, 2015 |
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| Reason For Issuing Alert | – The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) received a notification from the RASFF that certain batches of PERAIL raw sheep’s milk cheese were found to have been contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. The French producer concerned has initiated a recall of all batches of all specialties of the product produced between the aforesaid dates. According to the information provided by the RASFF, a small volume of the affected product has been imported into Hong Kong.
– Listeria monocytogenes can be easily destroyed by cooking but can survive and multiply at refrigerator temperature. Most healthy individuals do not develop symptoms or only have mild symptoms like fever, muscle pain, headache, nausea, vomiting or diarrhoea when infected. However, severe complications such as septicemia, meningitis or even death may occur in newborns, elderly and those with a weaker immune system. Although infected pregnant women may just experience mild symptoms generally, the infection of Listeria monocytogenes may cause miscarriage, infant death, preterm birth, or severe infection in the newborns. *Updated information on 5 June 2015: – On 4 June 2015, CFS received updates from The Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of France that the notification was withdrawn because the bacteria detected in the cheese concerned had been proven to be Listeria ivanovii, which does not justify the conclusion that these products are dangerous according to European regulations. The recalled products were therefore returned to the market. Listeria ivanovii is known to cause disease predominantly in ruminants. |
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The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control says it has confirmed seven cases of E. coli associated with a Greenwood County daycare.
Department of Health and Environmental Control officials are on the way to Greenwood to answer concerned parents’ questions about E. coli.More
Sunday DHEC announced on Sunday the results of laboratory testing that confirmed the seven cases of E. coli.
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Finland’s health authorities have been issuing advice in an attempt to prevent the spread of norovirus among swimmers this summer, following last year’s outbreak when hundreds of beachgoers caught the contagious vomiting bug.
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CDC –
PulseNet connects cases of foodborne illness to potential outbreaks. PulseNet is a national laboratory network made up of 87 laboratories−at least one in each state. PulseNet connects foodborne illness cases together to detect and define outbreaks using DNA “fingerprinting” of the bacteria making people sick using a standardized process called pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Every state has at least one public health laboratory
that can match up bacteria from sick people in many different locations using PulseNet’s DNA fingerprinting technique and database. PulseNet tracks what is being reported to CDC today compared to what was reported in the past to look for changes. This means that PulseNet keeps a cumulative database representing nearly half a million isolates of bacteria from food, the environment, and human foodborne illness.
Since its beginning in 1996, PulseNet has revolutionized the detection and investigation of foodborne disease outbreaks, especially in multiple sites across the country which, before PulseNet, often went undetected or were detected only after they grew very large.
Foodborne Outbreak Investigations
When two or more people get the same illness from the same contaminated food or drink, the event is called a foodborne disease outbreak. The list on this page primarily represents multistate foodborne outbreak investigations since 2006 where CDC was the lead public health agency. For a complete listing of reported outbreaks please use the Foodborne Outbreak Online Database (FOOD) tool.
Public health officials investigate outbreaks(http://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/outbreaks/investigating-outbreaks/investigations/index.html) to control them, so more people do not get sick, and to learn how to prevent similar outbreaks(http://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/outbreaks/prevention-education/future.html) from happening in the future.
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The Salt Lake County Health Department (SLCoHD) has determined that a food item served Sunday night at the St. Vincent de Paul Dining Hall contained Staphylococcal enterotoxin, a common cause of foodborne illness that produces symptoms consistent with those reported by the affected individuals.
The toxin is caused by Staphylococcus aureus, a common bacteria found on the skin that does not usually cause illness—unless it is introduced into improperly heated or cooled food. Staph bacteria are most often introduced into food when food handlers touch food with their bare hands. If that food is within the “food danger zone” of 40° F to 140° F, the bacteria can then grow and produce the toxin.
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Santa Barbara Smokehouse of Santa Barbara, CA is voluntarily recalling all cold smoked salmon from March 1st to April 8th 2015 because it may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. The recalled salmon was sold under the brand names Cambridge House, Coastal Harbor, Harbor Point, North Shore S.F. Specialty, Channel Islands and Santa Barbara. Consumers who have purchased any of these products should not eat them.
At the time of the recall, no illnesses had been reported in association with the product.
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Orange County has confirmed three cases of campylobacteriosis infection associated with consumption of raw goat milk distributed by Claravale Farm of San Benito County, California. All three patients are young children less than 5 years of age. One patient was hospitalized, and all of them are expected to recover.
The raw goat milk was distributed throughout the state, and the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) is leading an investigation to determine if there are additional cases. While the CDPH investigation is ongoing the Health Care Agency advises against consuming Claravale Farm raw goat milk.
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