Outbreaks and Alerts: September 23, 2010

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

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United States

• Greenfield, IN. September 22nd: Residents of Greenfield are advised to avoid contact, and keep pets out of, Potts Ditch on Greenfield High School property after ethylene glycol was found in the ditch.

Canada

• Moose Jaw, SK. September 22nd: Police are investigating five cases of datura poisoning. Five children, aged 11 to 15, were taken to hospital after ingesting seeds from Angel's Trumpet, a toxic but legal plant that is a member of the Datura family. In addition to fever and hallucination, ingestion of any part of the plant can result in delirium, agitation and persistent memory disturbance.

Europe

• Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. September 23rd: Twenty-four children who were participating at the Junior Chess Festival became ill with food poisoning; 17 of them were hospitalized for treatment. The dining hall where the children ate lunch is being investigated.

Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands

• Hong Kong. September 21st: The Center for Health Protection is investigating a suspected ciguatoxin poisoning case affecting seven people who had consumed coral reef fish in a restaurant in Lau Fau Shan.
• Dharamsala, Tibet. September 21st: A ninth-grade student of the Tibetan Children Village residential school died, and 80 9th and 10th grade students were admitted to hospital with food poisoning symptoms.
• Shizuoka, Japan. September 22nd: Twenty-two students at two nurseries and a kindergarten have been infected with norovirus. The virus was detected from a diaper of one of the 1-year old children.
• Niigata City, Japan. September 22nd: Sixty-nine staff and students from two high schools participating in a baseball tournament were stricken with food poisoning after eating a bento lunch from a restaurant. Clostridium perfringens was recovered from the samples.
• Orissa, India. September 22nd: Five people have died and dozens have been infected with cholera in the Rayagada District of Orissa.
• Bouira, Algeria. September 23rd: At least 600 residents of the Sour El Ghozlane community in the south of Bouira have been hospitalized after drinking water from a well that was drilled by the congregants of the El Rahma mosque. Investigations have determined that the well water is contaminated. More than of the residents are suffering from gastroenteritis, and at least 100 others have been diagnosed with hepatitis A.

Latin America and the Caribbean

• Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic. September 22nd: The Student Welfare Directorate announced that 14 students of the Janey school community developed gastrointestinal distress after drinking milk provided under the School Breakfast Program. The milk was supplied by the Dominicans Dairy Company.