Outbreaks and Alerts: January 3, 2011

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

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United States

• Multistate Outbreak. December 28th: Alfalfa sprouts from Tiny Green Organic Farm (Urbana, IL) have been blamed for an outbreak of Salmonella Typhimurium (Salmonella I 4,[5],12:i:-), which has sickened at least 94 people in 16 states and the District of Columbia.
• West Virginia. December 30th: Food Safety News reports that the Cabell-Huntington County Health Department has vaccinated 236 people after 11 individuals were infected with hepatitis A in the Milton, WV area. The source of the hepatitis outbreak has not been identified.
• New York, NY. January 3rd: The Queen Mary 2, en route to New York from Southampton, was boarded in St. Kitts by an inspector from the CDC Vessel Sanitation Program after the cruise ship reporting that 185 passengers (out of a total of 2,483) and 29 crew members were suffering from diarrhea and vomiting.

Canada

• Laval, QC. December 29th: The Cité-de-la-Santé Hospital in Laval has closed its doors to visitors in an attempt to control an outbreak of gastroenteritis that has affected both patients and staff at the hospital. Ambulances have been instructed to avoid the hospital until further notice.
• Hamilton, ON. January 2nd: Clostridium difficile contributed to the death of a 91-year old woman at St. Joseph's Hospital in Hamilton, bringing the total number of C. difficile related deaths at the facility to eleven since October 2010.

Europe

• Swansea, Wales, UK. January 3rd: Managers at Morriston Hospital have closed seven wards and asked the public to avoid visiting the hospital as part of a program to contain an outbreak of norovirus gastroenteritis.
• Bonn/Koblenz, Germany, January 3rd: A passenger who was infected with norovirus before boarding the Prinses Juliana has been identified as the source of an outbreak of gastroenteritis among passengers of the Rhine cruise ship. The ship was quarantined for one day after 50 of the ship's 150 passengers developed diarrhea and vomiting.
• Kalmykia, Russia. January 3rd: An emergency has been declared after veterinarians detected anthrax in meat from a slaughtered cow. Eight cases of human anthrax also are suspected, but have not yet been confirmed.

Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands

• Hong Kong. December 30th: The Centre for Food Safety reports that fresh pig liver may be one of the sources of food-borne hepatitis E virus infections in Hong Kong, after determining that 16 out of 51 liver samples from roaster pigs were positive for the virus.
• Beijing, China. December 31st: A random inspection of 35 rice noodle factories in Dongguan in early December revealed that only 5 of the 35 factories were manufacturing rice noodles that met government standards. Among the problems found during the inspections were noodles made with rotten grain and potentially carcinogenic additives.
• Cebu, Philippines. January 1st: Twelve cases of diarrhea have been reported in Catmon (Cebu province). One person has died.
• Harare, Zimbabwe. January 3rd: Cholera has been reported in at least 20 households in the Mbare suburb of Majubheki. According to news reports, the sewage system in Mbare has broken down, resulting in the contamination of drinking water with raw sewage.
• Jakarta, Indonesia. January 3rd: Six members of one Central Java family died from apparent food poisoning after eating tiwul, a traditional dish made from dried cassava powder.
• Papua New Guinea. January 3rd: PNG's cholera outbreak has spread to another district in East Sepik, with at least 10 confirmed deaths. In a separate incident, a nurse at Port Moresy General Hospital became infected with cholera after coming into contact with a patient's feces and vomit.

Latin America and the Caribbean

• Jamaica. December 23rd: The Ministry of Health is investigating a possible case of food poisoning after eleven persons who shared a meal were taken to St. Ann's Bay hospital. One of the eleven victims was dead on arrival, and the others received treatment. Samples of the meal were taken for testing, but no results have been released as of January 3rd.
• Dominican Republic. December 30th: Vibrio cholerae, has been found in the drinking water of two villages adjacent to the border with Haiti. At least 20 people in the area are suffering from cholera-like symptoms; 139 cholera cases have been confirmed nationwide.
• Tambor, Costa Rica. December 31st: Salmonella was found in a sample of chicken served at the Hotel Barceló Playa Tambor after 80 hotel guests complained of gastrointestinal symptoms. Nevertheless, none of the ill guests were found to be infected with Salmonella; instead, they were determined to be suffering from norovirus infections. The hotel was closed on December 26th as a result of the outbreak, and remained closed through the New Year's weekend.
• Bolivar, Colombia. December 31st: A possible cholera outbreak in temporary shelters in three municipalities has health authorities on the alert. The shelters were opened to house people who were forced to flee areas affected by flooding.
• Haiti. December 31st: The death toll from Haiti's cholera epidemic has reached 3,333; more than 150,000 infections have been reported.

Outbreaks and Alerts: December 9, 2010

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

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United States

• Midland, TX. December 2nd: The Midland Health Department reported Thursday it has observed more than 10 times the typical number of Shigella diarrhea cases since October – 53 versus the expected incidence of 3-4 per month.
• Gibbon, MN. December 7th: State Agriculture Department investigators have seized several hundred gallons of raw milk and other food produced by Mark Hartmann's dairy farm in defiance of a state order to halt production at the farm. Raw milk produced at Hartmann's farm was the source of eight cases of E. coli O157:H7 in May and several other instances of gastroenteritis in July and August.
• Boise, ID. December 8th: Health officials have found evidence of E. coli at a privately run prison south of Boise after five inmates at the Idaho Correctional Center became ill around December 1st.
• Bellaire, MI. December 8th: The Northwest Michigan Health Department has issued a norovirus advisory for the region. Health workers suspect that norovirus was behind two outbreaks of gastroenteritis in Grand Traverse County in October - one linked to a company luncheon and the other at a day care center.
• Maine. December 9th: The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Maine CDC has issued a norovirus health advisory after receiving reports of five outbreaks from four counties in the last 10 days. Four of the outbreaks occurred in long term care facilities, and the fifth was in a school setting.
• Washington, DC. December 9th: EPA has published a petition filed by 82 public health and environmental groups to ban the antibacterial agent triclosan for nonmedical use. A 60-day comment period has been announced.
• Brown County, Kansas. December 9th: The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has issued a boil water advisory for the City of Willis and portions of the City of Horton after a loss of water pressure was reported in the public water system.

Canada

• Peterborough, ON. December 8th: The Peterborough Regional Health Centre continues to restrict visitors to its B3 medical unit, due to an outbreak of Clostridium difficile, MRSA and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus. No new cases have been identified.

Europe

• Llandudno, Wales. December 8th: Badgers Café is facing five hygiene and cleanliness charges after an outbreak of Salmonella Enteritidis PT14b last year.
• Wiltshire, UK. December 8th: Churchfields School remains closed as investigations continue into an illness outbreak, thought to be due to norovirus. Twenty-four staff members are absent with symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea.
• Liverpool, UK. December 8th: Banks Road Primary School in Garston is experiencing an outbreak of viral gastroenteritis. About 55 of the 209 pupils are affected.
• UK. December 9th: The Health Protection Agency has recorded 43 outbreaks of norovirus in hospitals since the beginning of November. Thirty-nine of the outbreaks have led to ward closures.
• Saint-Michel, France. December 9th: A 14-year old student at Puygrelier College has been hospitalized and 143 are ill with food poisoning. A meal served to the students on Tuesday is suspected to be the source of the outbreak. Lab analyses are in progress.
• Östersund, Sweden. December 9th: The municipality believes that it has found the source of the Campylobacter contamination in its municipal water system. The parasite is thought to have entered the system in a multi-family dwelling in the Odensala neighborhood of Östersund.

Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands

• Putrajaya, Malaysia. December 8th: The Health Ministry has ordered a probe of the waters of the Kenyir Lake to determine the extent to which it is contaminated with E. coli, following media reports of high levels of the bacteria having been found in the waters of the lake by a study undertaken by Universiti Malaysia Terengganu.
• Morogoro, Tanzania. December 8th: Four people have died and 58 were hospitalized in a new outbreak of cholera. The first cases in the area were reported two weeks ago.
• Singapore. December 9th: Cordial drinks and chicken frank rolls were suspected to have caused the mass food poisoning incident at the Singapore Sports School canteen last month which affected 106 students. A sample of chicken frank rolls was found to contain low levels of Bacillus cereus, and one of the food handlers also tested positive for Salmonella.
• Cebu, Philippines. December 9th: The number of reported cases of typhoid fever continue to rise in two villages of Alegria. At least 30 residents have been hospitalized; 160 are experiencing symptoms of typhoid. Contaminated water is suspected to be the source of the outbreak.

Outbreaks and Alerts: November 30, 2010

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

If you would like to receive automatic email alerts for all new articles posted on eFoodAlert, please click here or submit your request using the sidebar link. Please include "subscribe eFoodAlert" in the subject line.

United States

• Orlando, FL. November 29th: An Orlando-area woman was treated for cholera after recently moving here from Haiti, and has recovered.
• Lee County, FL. November 29th: A norovirus was responsible for sickening 69 people at the recent Take Stock in Children charity event.

Canada

• Montreal, QC. November 29th: The Canadian government has announced new regulations and amendments to an existing regulation under the Hazardous Products Act that will restrict the amount of lead in a variety of consumer products, including children's toys.

Europe

• Dublin, Ireland. November 29th: The Food Safety Authority of Ireland has released the results of its recent survey into the microbiological quality of raw chicken fillets that were distributed to butchers in gas-flushed bulk packs and sold loose to consumers. Of the 138 samples test, 15% were unsatisfactory for aerobic colony count; 8% of butchers did not provide a use-by date, as required by law; 23% of butchers provided a use-by date for which they had no basis and at least 23% provided an unrealistically long use-by date.
• Ostersund, Sweden. November 29th: Residents of Ostersund are living under a "boil water" order, and the city's water supply has been confirmed to contain Cryptosporidium. More than 2,000 people have been infected with the intestinal parasite.
• Tuva, Russia. November 29th: An outbreak of Hepatitis A has sickened 49 people in two Tuva districts. Quarantine measures have been introduced in schools and institutions.
• London, UK. November 29th: A potentially lethal strain of antibiotic-resistant E. colibacteria has been discovered at the neonatal ward at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich. The department has now been closed as staff fight the outbreak.

Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands

• Bongor, Chad. November 29th: As of November 24th, cholera has killed 166 people and infected 5,787 across Chad. In many cases, traditional burial rituals are contributing to the spread of the epidemic.
• Danao City, Philippines. November 29th: The Department of Health is monitoring the rising incidents of diarrhea in Danao City after at least 120 illnesses were reported. Of the 120 people who were taken to hospital, 70 remain hospitalized under treatment. Authorities have not yet traced the source of the illnesses.
• Taiwan. November 30th: Since October, 2010, a total of 15 diarrhea clusters have been reported. 7 clusters were tested positive for gastroenteritis virus infection, including 5 tested positive for norovirus infection and 2 tested positive for norovirus-rotavirus coinfection. 6 clusters occurred in schools and 1 cluster occurred in a densely populated institution. 5 clusters were tested negative for gastroenteritis virus infection. The other remaining 3 clusters are being tested. During the same period last year, 11 diarrhea clusters were reported. 9 clusters were tested positive for gastroenteritis virus infection and all 9 were positive for norovirus infection. Among the clusters, 5 occurred in schools, 1 occurred in a densely populated institution, 1 occurred in a hospital, 1 occurred in a family, and the other occurred at another site.

Australia and New Zealand

• New South Wales, Australia. November 28th: A Dominos pizza store in Quakers Hill has been fined $116,000 and its director $13,500 for multiple breaches of the New South Wales Food Act after investigations uncovered "appalling conditions" in the store.

Latin America and the Caribbean

• Cordoba, Argentina. November 27th: An outbreak of trichinosis has been confirmed by the Ministry of Health, with seven cases have been reported in Cordoba City. The infection is thought to have been transmitted by consumption of sausages.
• Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. November 28th: A seventh case of cholera has been confirmed in the country, which shares the island of Hispanola with Haiti.
• Port-au-Prince, Haiti. November 29th: The Department of Public Healthreports 1,721 deaths, 75,888 cases of infection and 33,485 hospitalizations have been logged since the onset of the cholera outbreak. The origin of the epidemic has not been pinpointed, but is thought to have been imported, as the cholera strain is similar to the strain that is endemic in Asia.