Outbreaks and Alerts: July 16, 2010

A daily digest of international outbreaks, alerts and food safety news

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United States

• Longmont, CO. July 15: Billy Goat Dairy has been cleared to resume production and sale of raw goat milk under its herd-share program, according to a report in the Longmont Times.
• Minneapolis, KS. July 15: Due to a water main break, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) has issued a boil water advisory for the City of Minneapolis, which is located in Ottawa County.
• Washington, DC. July 16: The DC Department of Health announced that current health inspection notices, and notices from the past three years, are now available on its website, doh.dc.gov.
• Durham, NC. July 16: The Durham County Health Department has determined that a spring outbreak of food poisoning among persons who ate food prepared at Bullock’s Bar-B-Que Restaurant was due to a Salmonella-contaminated commercially manufactured egg white food product, used to make meringue. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified similar outbreaks of Salmonella enteritidis in other locations throughout the country. The epidemiologically implicated food item involved a common ingredient, commercially distributed pasteurized egg whites, sold by the same restaurant supplier, and manufactured in the same plant as the product delivered to Bullock’s Restaurant. However, testing conducted by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and other laboratories of this product could not conclusively prove that this wholesale ingredient was definitively contaminated with Salmonella.
• Silver Spring, MD. July 16: FDA warns the public that certain Advair Diskus inhalers stolen from a distribution warehouse in 2009 have been found in some pharmacies. The safety and effectiveness of the stolen inhalers cannot be assured and they should not be used.

Canada

• Owen Sound, ON. July 16: Laboratory results have confirmed that a norovirus was responsible for making scores of people who visited Stone Tree Golf and Fitness Club ill earlier this month, according to a report in the Sun Times.

Europe

• United Kingdom. July 16: Between March 2009 and April 2010, England and Wales reported a total of 25,604 cases of Clostridium difficile infections, down 29% from the previous year. Roughly one-half (52%) of the infections were acquired by patients during the same hospital stay when their symptoms first appeared.

Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands

• Taichung City, Taiwan. July 15: A prominent local sandwich maker Hong Ruei Jhen’s branch in Taichung City was fined NT$100,000 for restoring home delivery service during a three-day business suspension. One hundred eighty-seven (187) customers were reported to have developed food poisoning after eating the sandwiches, which had been held at an inappropriate temperature.
• Orissa, India. July 15: Two children are dead and at least 10 other people have been taken ill after consuming wild mushrooms and leaves.
• Shamshahabad, Punjab, India. July 15: A 12-year-old girl died and more than 83 people were taken ill Thursday after they drank contaminated water, according to local health officials.