November 2004

When two of her three children complained of stomach aches a couple of days after Halloween, Polly Ackerman thought too much candy was the culprit. Her second-grade son Mason recovered but Emma–who’s in kindergarten–was sick one day and felt better the next.
This pattern continued for about five days until Emma began experiencing what Polly called “severe diarrhea.”
“That Saturday night we were up every hour with her as she had diarrhea and severe stomach cramps,” said Polly, who is a registered nurse.
By Sunday morning, Emma’s stools showed specks of blood which Polly said was confirmed by a hemocult test.
The Ackermans took Emma to a Kearney clinic that is open on Sunday afternoons where the pediatrician who saw the child admitted her to Good Samaritan Hospital.
There Emma was treated for dehydration and observed to see if the diarrhea would slow. That didn’t happen as Polly said her daughter had 19 stools in a 14-hour period.
Speculation that the child had hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS)–the most common complication of E. coli 0157:H7–was later confirmed.Continue Reading Seventh-grader develops severe complication

New questions are being raised about the source of the E. coli outbreak that has been linked to this year’s State Fair. While most of the focus has been on petting zoos, some are questioning whether food vendors could be a possible source.
An anonymous viewer sent pictures to Eyewitness News claiming they show boxes of frozen turkey drumsticks sitting outside on a wooden pallet during the State Fair.
If the pictures are legitimate, and the drumsticks sat out long enough to be warmer than 45-degress, Wake County environmental health specialist, Rebecca Robbins says she would be concerned. “The concerns would definitely be food borne illnesses bacteria such as E. coli, salmonella… it’s an important health concern because they do have a severe effect on people such as bloody stool etc.”Continue Reading State Fair E. Coli Outbreak

The Tribune reports that restaurants and other eateries in Indiana that fail to meet the new Food Handler Certification requirement by Jan. 1 may be fined up to $100 per day.
Representatives from the food industry proposed the rule, which the Indiana General Assembly passed in 2001, allowing a four-year grace period for infrastructure buildup.…

No new cases of E. coli have been reported to state health officials since Friday, so a command center set up to coordinate the response to the disease outbreak is closing, officials said Monday.
State health officials are investigating 106 suspected cases of E. coli, 41 of which have been confirmed. Nineteen of the confirmed…

As if critical shortages of flu vaccine weren’t enough, now North Carolinians have a new public health risk to worry about: E. coli and petting zoos.
The numbers vary from day to day, but officials are investigating more than 100 possible cases of that infection, with more than 35 cases confirmed so far. Almost all those victims visited the N.C. State Fair in Raleigh in October, and half are children under age 5. One is a 21-month-old Mecklenburg County girl, who is recovering.
State epidemiologists believe they have traced the infections to the fair’s two petting zoos. If that is the case, this outbreak will be one of a series related to petting zoos from Oregon to Ohio to Pennsylvania reported since 1998.
The question is how to respond.
E. coli is a bacteria usually spread through undercooked meat contaminated with animal feces or contaminated water. But it can be spread by contact with animals — hence the petting zoo connection, and the associated public health risk.Continue Reading N.C.’s E. coli outbreak

The Herald-Sun reports that as of Thursday, 43 people people had tested positive for the bacterial infection, including the three in Chatham County, two in Durham County and one in Person County. At least 27 victims had visited the State Fair in Raleigh Oct. 15 through 24. Officials believe most of the victims came into…

Julie Larson Bricher’s Lights, Camera, HACCP! discusses the food safety programs used by today’s food companies, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP), which uses a proactive approach rather than reactive, emphasizing food hazard prevention rather than the detection of harmful defects in finished food products. Read it.

Most of us have experienced a bout of food poisoning: an episode of stomach pain or upset often associated with diarrhea and in some cases vomiting. Such encounters are usually inconsequential, of limited duration and rarely do we think to bother our general practitioner with them. Most of us assume it’s something we have eaten or drunk, shrug it off and get on with our lives. Minor bouts of upset stomachs have become so common as to be something we all expect to experience sooner or later, and we rarely question their origin.
Imagine the following scenario:
It’s lunchtime and three customers enter a restaurant. The first eats some meat and has a very severe reaction four days later from a virulent form of salmonella. The second eats chicken and three days later comes down with a bad bout of campylobacteriosis, with diarrhea, fever and vomiting. The third only eats imported cheese and nearly dies a few days later of meningitis. Far-fetched? Not at all. Food poisoning is rampant and it’s increasing at an alarming rate.
And the problem is not confined to fast foods.
Potentially lethal bacteria are turning up daily in a wide variety of foods. Salmonella has also been found in other products such as fruit juices, bread and even chocolate.Continue Reading Who Ordered the Food Poisoning?