Virginia

  • Update on Virginia girl attacked by E. coli

    Posted: July 24th, 2011 - 10:03am by Doug Powell

    Five-year-old Zoey Weaver of Abingdon, Virginia, is bright, engaging and can even spell her name. She has also endured a medical nightmare. Zoey loves to draw. She's at home with her grandmother after spending 25 days at Vanderbilt after contracting E. coli

    Mother Rebecca Weaver: said, "the worst time was four or five days in, she was hemorrhaging, and the doctors were very concerned."

    For 25 days Zoey battled the deadly invaders. Luckily she doesn't remember much about her ordeal, but she does remember this.

    Zoey Weaver: "I had wires running from here to here." PJ: "Giving you medicine?"

    Zoey: "yes."

    Rebecca Weaver still wonders how Zoey contracted E. coli in the first place. The whole ordeal has changed her forever.

    A video of Zoey is availlable here, at WCYB.

     

     

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    E. coli  |  0 Comments
    e. coli, food safety, virginia, Zoey Weaver
  • 13 E. coli cases, 1 death in Tennessee, Virginia

    Posted: June 11th, 2011 - 11:41am by Doug Powell

    Reuters reports an outbreak of E.coli cases in northeastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia has sickened 13 people and resulted in the death of a young child, public health officials said on Friday.

    Virginia has two confirmed cases of the E. coli strain O157:H7. Both Virginia cases affected children who had close contact with each other, and one of those children died, said Maureen Dempsey, a Virginia Public Health Department deputy chief.

    Dempsey declined to confirm the age and sex of each of the children, but local media reported a 2-year-old girl from Dryden, Virginia, died on Sunday and her brother, who was also infected, was released from a hospital a few days later.

    Northeastern Tennessee has 11 laboratory-confirmed cases of E.coli since June 1, said David Kirschke, medical director of the Northeast Tennessee Regional Health Office.

    Three cases were O157:H7, and the remainder other strains in a category known as non-O157, he said. Kirschke said no link has been made between the Virginia and Tennessee cases.

    "We're not even sure if our cases are linked with each other," he said, adding the Tennessee O157:H7 strains also are being genetically fingerprinted to see if they are from a single source.

    Still, Kirschke said health officials are treating the cases as an outbreak due to their large number, their close proximity and the short time frame of their appearance

    "It seems too coincidental to have this many cases in a week," he said.

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    Death, e. coli O157, food safety, Tennessee, virginia
  • Poop in pet store leads to lawsuit

    Posted: April 6th, 2010 - 7:29am by Doug Powell

    The USA Today yesterday reported a Virginia man is suing mega pet chain PetSmart for $1 million after slipping in dog feces at their store in Newport News, Va.

    Robert Holloway alleges that the retailer and its employees "negligently allowed animals to enter the premises and deposit feces in such a manner as to create a dangerous and hazardous condition" and that it should've been cleaned up. His suit claims that he slipped during the incident last year, injuring his back and knocking out four teeth. He was 69 at the time, according to the Virginian-Pilot.

    A judge dismissed a suit brought in 2008 by a woman who said she slipped in urine and injured her knee at the same PetSmart location.

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    Wacky and Weird  |  1 Comment
    Lawsuit, petsmart, Poop, virginia
  • The risk of risk comparisons – raw oysters vs Cheetos edition

    Posted: March 24th, 2010 - 4:20pm by Doug Powell

    Risk comparisons can be risky: they usually offend the target audience and make the author sound like a jack-ass.

    James Wesson, oyster scientist with the Virginia Marine Resource Commission, told the Daily Press that the overwhelming majority of oysters sold in the United States are not contaminated, adding,

    "More people die each year from eating Cheetos than from eating oysters.”

    No data was provided.

    The comment was made as part of a story about Virginia regulators requiring stiffer rules to prevent the sale of contaminated oysters harvested from the Chesapeake Bay during warm-water months.

    Each year about 15 people die from eating contaminated oysters, according to the agency. Most of the problem oysters come from the Gulf of Mexico, but at least one has been linked to Virginia waters since 2000, said Robert Croonenberghs, director of the state Health Department's shellfish sanitation division.

    If the FDA finds another contaminated oyster sold by Virginia seafood suppliers, the agency could prohibit shipping raw oysters outside state lines, he said. Such a ban could stifle the industry and cause thousands of dollars in losses to suppliers, watermen, and oyster farmers.

    The number of deaths may be statistically trivial – unless it happens to you or someone you know. And this risk can be managed.

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    Food Safety Policy  |  0 Comments
    comparison, Oysters, Raw, Risk, Vibrio, virginia