Not a goal for the restaurant I would imagine.

The newest food safety infosheet, a graphical one-page food safety-related story directed at food businesses, is now available for download.
Food Safety Infosheet Highlights:

5 confirmed cases (including 2 hospitalizations), 11 suspected; linked to Killeen, TX Jason’s Deli location
- The Bell County Health Department figures the source of the illnesses was guacamole, probably due to cross-contamination in the kitchen.
- Clean and sanitize all surfaces (cutting boards, counters) between raw and ready-to-eat food preparation.

Food safety infosheets are created weekly and are posted in restaurants, retail stores, on farms and used in training throughout the world. If you have any infosheet topic requests, or photos, please contact Ben Chapman at benjamin_chapman@ncsu.edu.

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According to press reports, five staff workers at Camp Lutherhaven on Lake Coeur d’Alene tested positive for E.coli this week, but none have required hospitalization.

Preliminary tests identified the bacteria in the five staff workers as Shiga Toxin-producing E.coli (STEC) Type 1. Further tests on one specimen indicate that it’s 026, the second most common type of STEC in Idaho.

All five experienced abdominal cramping and diarrhea; one reported bloody diarrhea. Some experienced nausea as well. None experienced complications associated with this type of E.coli. 

The five staff workers worked in the camp kitchen and four were food handlers during the camp’s start-off week June 19 to June 24. They were excluded from kitchen duty as soon as their illnesses were known. The five also shared living quarters.

“I’m thankful we caught it when we did,” said Bob Baker, Camp Lutherhaven executive director. “We’ve put everything in place to stop this in its tracks.”

Since the start of the camping season, 60 staff workers and 300 campers have stayed at Lutherhaven.

Panhandle Health District inspected the camp kitchen June 27 and found it “far above the standard for cleanliness and excellence in running a kitchen,” according to the resulting report,

The camp immediately intensified hand-washing procedures for everyone and began spritzing a diluted bleach solution on chairs, counters, kitchen equipment, bathrooms, door and drawer handles.

The source of the infection is under investigation. E.coli spreads through undercooked beef or unpasteurized milk, fruits and vegetables fertilized or irrigated with contaminated water, poor hygiene and contaminated lakes, wells and swimming pools.

Camp has remained open. All guests, campers and staff who were at the site from the end of May have been notified about the symptoms of E.coli and encouraged to see a doctor immediately if they experience symptoms.

Symptoms of an E.coli infection appear from two to 10 days after exposure. The last staff worker laboratory-confirmed with STEC fell ill on June 24.

Accordning to press reports, Zoey Weaver, a Virginia girl, is battling a potential deadly bacteria at a Mid-state Hospital.

Zoey’s mother, Rebecca Weaver, says, “it is hard just seeing her laying there when she is usually just up and going constantly – I would give anything just to see her up and playing.”

But now her parents watch helplessly as their daughter fights a vicious infection.

Zoey’s Dad, John Weaver, says, “E. coli there ain’t no treatment – it just has to run it’s course and you are pretty much helpless – they just treat the side effects of it its just hard seeing your child sick and not being able to do anything for her.”

In the past six weeks public health departments have recorded 18 cases of E. coli in western Virginia and northern Tennessee.

The Alabama Department of Public Health says the E. coli outbreak in Lee County has climbed to 15 illnesses with thirteen children and two adults now ill.

Each of the victims either played in the Splash Park or swam in the pool at the Opelika SportsPlex and Aquatic Center between June 4 and June 22, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health, and all have severe gastrointestinal illness.

ADPH says five children have been confirmed positive for E. coli; four children were initially hospitalized and two remain hospitalized.

Nate Morabito wrote this on Facebook this morning:

This is Gabby Blair. She is the two year-old from Lee County, VA who died from an E. coli infection earlier this month. The extraordinary blue-eyed beauty queen’s family sat down with me to share her story. Tune in today at Noon, 5, 5:30, and 6 pm to learn more about Gabby, her family, and her older brother Lazarus. He survived an E. coli infection. Hope you’ll join me for this amazing story. http://www2.tricities.com

Reporter Mac McLean has been all over this story for weeks, but still has not found the cause of the outbreak that has sickened 17 and killed one. According to Mac, health officials in Northeast Tennessee and Western Virginia report that 18 people came down with a potentially fatal Escherichia coli infection between May 8 and June 2.

Officials with the Virginia Department of Health have found some “similarities” between a potentially fatal strain of Escherichia coli bacteria that’s sickened Western Virginia residents over the past six weeks and one that’s affected people in Northeast Tennessee. “We are seeing some similarities in the strains from Virginia and Tennessee,” VDH spokesman Robert Parker said in an e-mail to the Bristol Herald Courier. “But nothing to link them in terms of transmission … no common source has been identified.”

On June 5, a 2-year-old girl from Dryden, Va., was rushed to the Johnson City Medical Center’s Pediatric Intensive Care unit. She and her brother were exhibiting symptoms common to a severe E. coli infection, according to a report from the Washington County, Tenn., Sheriff’s Office. The girl died at the hospital, according to the report, while her brother was rushed to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn. He has since been released and is back at home in Lee County.

Immediately after the girl’s death, Parker issued a statement announcing that his department confirmed an E. coli infection had sickened two children from Southwest Virginia who were related to each other. Lab results showed they were infected by E. coli O157:H7, which is the most common STEC strain in the U.S., and responsible for almost half of the illnesses caused by E. coli infections each year. Parker said the bacteria responsible for three other infections from Western Virginia had the same DNA fingerprint as the bacteria that sickened the two children from Dryden.

Last week, the Northeast Tennessee Regional Health Office announced it had identified 13 people who had come down with an E. coli infection between May 15 and June 2. Two were from Sullivan County, Health Office Director David Kirshke said, while the remaining 11 were scattered among a seven-county area. Three of these people were infected by an E coli O157 strain that Parker said was genetically similar to the E. coli O157 strain that was making people sick in Western Virginia. Kirshke said earlier that his office found that eight of these patients were sickened by a non-O157 STEC strain – such as E. Coli O103 or E. coli O169 – and he was waiting on the test results from the final two cases.

“The investigation continues,” Parker said.

The Alabama Department of Public Health continues its investigation of the E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in Lee County. Six children who played in the Splash Park and Aquatic Center in Opelika between June 12 and June 18 have been identified with severe gastrointestinal illness as of Friday, June 24.

There have been problems with waterparks in the past:

Atlanta White Water Waterpark E. coli O157:H7 Litigation

In the summer of 1998, 26 children became ill from E. coli O157:H7 contracted while playing in the kiddie pool at White Water Park, a commercial water park in suburban Atlanta. Seven of those children were hospitalized and a 2-year-old girl died from Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome, a kidney disorder caused by E. coli O157:H7.

Seneca Lake State Park Spraypark Cryptosporidium Litigation

During June, July, and August, 2005, nearly 4,000 people became ill with Cryptosporidiosis after visiting the spraypark at Seneca Lake State Park in New York. The New York State Health Department determined that the spraypark’s holding tanks were contaminated with Cryptosporidium, a parasite.