Camp and cheeseburgers shouldn't kill - mother and son describe effects of E. coli O157 illness linked to Rhode Island camp; 'I want it to be Ponderosa night again'
Stephen Smith of the Boston Globe writes this morning,
The signs of trouble arrived deep in the night: first, bloody diarrhea, then nausea
Austin Richmond nor his mother knew it at the time, but he had been infected with a potentially lethal germ known as E. coli O157:H7. And, according to a lawsuit filed yesterday, the 11-year-old from Lincoln, R.I., caught it doing what many children do when they are away at camp, by eating a cheeseburger.
There were trips to the emergency room, trips to the doctor’s office, and initial confusion over what was causing him to be so sick. For more than two weeks, Austin, a sixth-grader, has been banished from school and not just because of his own illness. There is also concern that, because his immune system has been so ravaged battling the E. coli infection, he might prove especially susceptible to swine flu, which killed another student at Lincoln Middle School over the weekend.
Austin’s mother, Jaimee Richmond, said,
“He just wants to go back to being him. He wants to be able to play soccer. He wants to go to Boy Scouts. He wants to go back to church, which are words I never thought I would hear coming out of his mouth. … “I’m angry, I’m sad, I’m confused, I’m overwhelmed. I just want to go back to normal life. Tuesday night, it used to be Ponderosa night because it’s cheap, it’s family, the kids loved it. I just want it to be Ponderosa night again.’’
Tiny turtles still making kids sick
Growing up in late-1960s suburbia, I had a turtle.
Turtles were inexpensive, popular, and low maintenance, with an array of groovy pre-molded plastic housing designs to choose from. Invariably they would escape, only to be found days later behind the couch along with the skeleton of the class bunny my younger sister brought home from kindergarten one weekend.
But eventually, replacement turtles became harder to come by. Reports started surfacing that people with pet turtles were getting sick. In 1975, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned commercial distribution of turtles less than 4 inches in length, and it has been estimated that the FDA ban prevents some 100,000 cases of salmonellosis among children each year.
Maybe I got sick from my turtle.
Maybe I picked up my turtle, rolled around on the carpet with it, pet it a bit, and then stuck my finger in my mouth. Maybe in my emotionally vacant adolescence I kissed my turtle. Who can remember?
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A report that will be published tomorrow in the journal Pediatrics documents how 107 people in 34 states became sick with Salmonella from the small turtles between 2007 and 2008 – including two girls who swam with pet turtles in a backyard pool.
The paper notes that one-third of all patients had to be hospitalized, and in many cases, parents didn't know turtles could carry salmonella.
Julie Harris, a scientist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the report's lead author said other cases turned up elsewhere, many involving direct contact with turtles, including children kissing turtles or putting them in their mouths.
I’m familiar with that.
David Bergmire-Sweat, a North Carolina epidemiologist who investigated the Union County case, said he's heard of families letting turtles walk on kitchen surfaces where food is prepared, and babies being bathed in sinks where turtle cages are washed.
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Veterinarian Mark Mitchell, a University of Illinois zoological medicine professor, has been working with Louisiana turtle farmers in research aimed at raising salmonella-free turtles, says the industry has been unfairly saddled with harsher restrictions than producers of human foods also blamed for recent salmonella outbreaks.
Maybe, but people need to eat. They don’t need to kiss turtles.
UK petting zoo E. coli O157 outbreak: 36 confirmed sick; 12 in hospital all under age of 10; four in serious condition; this won't turn out well
It’s like people in the U.K. had never heard of E. coli O157. Despite outbreak after outbreak – often involving children at nurseries -- public inquiries and a single food safety agency, the Brits just seem oblivious when it comes to dangerous pathogens that send kids to the hospital.
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This morning, the London Times reported that
“Thousands of children across the South of England may be at risk from the E. coli bug in what looks to be the largest UK outbreak linked to transmission from farm animals."
Godstone Farm in Surrey, a popular family attraction where children are encouraged to stroke and touch animals, is closed while the Health Protection Agency (HPA) conducts tests to find out the cause of the outbreak which has left 12 children in hospital, four of them in a serious condition.
About 1,000 children, mainly from South London, Surrey, Kent and Sussex, visit the farm every day during the school holidays and at weekends. It is feared that 30,000 children could be at risk of infection.
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It has emerged health officials knew about the outbreak among people who visited the farm days before it was closed to the public.
The Health Protection Agency became aware of the outbreak in late August after cases were traced to the farm.
One parent has expressed her anger, saying the decision for the farm to remain open was an "absolute disgrace".
But farm manager Richard Oatway said the farm had acted responsibly and was co-operating with the investigation.
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Richard, please share with us your knowledge of natural reservoirs of E. coli O157, and the steps you’ve taken to control such dangerous pathogens from infecting children who visit your farm. Handwashing isn’t enough.
From France to Kansas City: foodborne illness in schools
Several headmasters from the Haute-Garonne and Tarn primary schools in France simultaneously informed the health authorities of the occurrence of digestive disorders of low severity among students.
A retrospective cohort study, conducted through self-administered questionnaires among approximately 3,000 students and teachers who had participated in two meals in 36 schools concerned, was initiated to confirm the existence of a foodborne outbreak and its origin. …
This large-scale foodborne outbreak illustrates the main factors that encourage the occurrence of foodborne outbreaks (multiple malfunctions in the preparation of meals), and stresses the importance of associating the epidemiological, veterinary and microbiological investigations in the early management of the alert, as well as the first management measures (eviction of sick personal) to avoid major consequences in collective catering.
Meanwhile in Missouri, two Lee's Summit kindergarten students have been hospitalized with salmonella.
The kids, a boy and a girl, have been enrolled in Richardson Kids Country during the school year. The Health Department has not determined if their illness is related to the school.
Ajax shouldn't go in DQ shakes; windshield wiper fluid is not Kool-Aid for kids
An employee of a Ferndale, Washington, Dairy Queen says she “accidentally” poured Ajax into the malt dispenser, sickening two customers, according to court documents.
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Detectives obtained surveillance video and saw the employee, Dale, pouring the Ajax into the malt dispenser, documents said.
Meanwhile, officials at an Arkansas hospital reported Friday that 10 children drank windshield wiper fluid after a staffer at an Arkansas day care mistakenly put the liquid in a refrigerator and served it.
A hospital toxicologist said,
"All we know was that the individual at the day care had recently shopped and had come back to the day care with a lot of different products. This product was mistakenly grabbed and thought to be Kool-Aid and put in the refrigerator."
Canada's public health silliness
Dr. David Butler-Jones (right, exactly as shown), the chief public health thingy for Canada who hasn’t been heard from since his embarrassing statements about how listeria in deli meats that killed 20 Canadians last fall was due to poor handwashing , has apparently spent the past 7 months devising a game for school kids.
Dr. David Butler-Jones, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, today launched an educational program designed to help students learn about food borne illnesses, how they’re caused and how to prevent the risk of infection.
It’s foodborne, not food borne. Butler-Jones insists repeatedly the bulk of foodborne illness happens at home, and says the game is innovative but provides no assessment by the targert audience.
“Creating healthy habits and practicing safe food handling starts at an early age. These students are learning an important lesson about the causes of food contamination and how to protect themselves and their families against infectious disease. This initiative shows how collaboration between the federal and provincial governments, health experts and educators can lead to the creation of innovative public health tools and resources that contribute to better health for Canadians and for our communities.”
This initiative shows nothing except how tax dollars can be wasted.
Oh, and Health Canada came out today with so-called fact sheets on how to safely handle fresh produce, and emphasize repeatedly that “fresh fruits and vegetables do not naturally contain microorganisms … that can make you sick.”
No idea where that statement came from. Other than pressure from the fresh fruit and vegetable growers in Canada. That’s how government and public pronouncements roll north of the 49th parallel.
E. coli outbreak linked to Denver cattle show
Health officials are investigating an outbreak linked to Colorado's largest stock show after 20 people, including 17 kids, came down with E. coli O157.
Chris Urbina with Denver Public Health said a lab has confirmed 20 E. coli cases but the number is expected to grow.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said in a news release,
"While the investigation is ongoing, we suspect that these infections are linked to attending the National Western Stock Show, which was held in Denver from Jan. 10 to Jan. 25.”
Although health officials haven't pinpointed the exact cause of the E. coli, the common denominator in all the cases is the stock show, Urbina said.
Many schools and child care centers organized trips to the stock show, and many children attended with their families, so there is the potential that the number of cases could jump, health officials said.
On Wednesday, the CDPHE sent a letter to daycare centers alerting them to the outbreak and asking the staff to take special precautions.
For disease reporting or other questions please contact the CDPHE Communicable Disease program at 303-692-2700.
CHUCK DODD: Eating dirt can be bad for you
New York Times journalist Jane Brody suggests that eating dirt is an instinctive behavior in humans. In her article, Eating dirt can be good for you - just ask babies, she interviewed researchers who think 
people should eat dirt in order to stimulate their immune system. Brody says that immune system disorders such as asthma and allergies have risen significantly in the United States.
Although allergies do appear to be on the rise, the awareness of allergies, the ability to diagnose allergies, and the number of people at risk (the U.S. population) have also risen significantly.
The director of gastroenterology and hepatology at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, Dr. Joel Weinstock, said in the interview,
"There are very few diseases that people get from worms. Humans have adapted to the presence of most of them. … Children should be allowed to go barefoot in the dirt, play in the dirt, and not have to wash their hands when they come in to eat…let kids have two dogs and a cat, which will expose them to intestinal worms that can promote a healthy immune system.”
Dr. Weinstock, I’m sure glad you aren’t my doctor.
I agree that immune systems are naturally stimulated by various exposures to the environment, and that Americans use too many antibacterial products, but I question Dr. Weinstock’s knowledge of zoonotic diseases. Intestinal parasites from animals that infect humans, since many are not adapted to humans, often leave the intestines and migrate through the body. There are approximately 10,000 human cases of larva migrans in the U.S. each year. Unfortunately, most of these cases are in children, and a few of these kids die.
Eating dirt is an instinct? Not for me. Babies eat dirt because they don’t know better. Some may think that bad behavior is an instinct, but calling bad behavior an instinct doesn’t excuse it. Bad advice shouldn’t be excused either.
Dirt may have poop in it, so don’t eat it.
Montana mom brings rabid bat to school, 90 kids to get rabies shots
About 90 children at Stevensville Elementary School in Montana have started a series of six shots of anti-rabies vaccine after a local schoolmom gave show-and-tell-and-touch presentations in five classrooms involving a dead bat.
The bat was subsequently confirmed to be diseased.
School officials say they will use liability insurance to pay up to $70,000 for the exposed children to be vaccinated. The overall cost could surpass $150,000.
The school has since set a policy requiring that anyone visiting the school obtain a visitor pass.
Stop kissing turtles: 100 US kids sickened in new Salmonella outbreak
Growing up in late-1960s suburbia, my parents thought dogs should run on farms like their dogs had, and cats were a nuisance.
So I had a turtle.
Turtles were inexpensive, popular, and low maintenance, with an array of groovy pre-molded plastic housing designs to choose from. Invariably they would escape, only to be found days later behind the couch along with the skeleton of the class bunny my younger sister brought home from kindergarten one weekend.
But eventually, replacement turtles became harder to come by. Reports started surfacing that people with pet turtles were getting sick. In 1975, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned commercial distribution of turtles less than 4 inches in length, and it has been estimated that the FDA ban prevents some 100,000 cases of salmonellosis among children each year.
Maybe I got sick from my turtle.
Maybe I picked up my turtle, rolled around on the carpet with it, pet it a bit, and then stuck my finger in my mouth. Maybe in my emotionally vacant adolescence I kissed my turtle. Who can remember?
Last week the U.K. noted an increase in reptile-related Salmonella cases. Today, media outlets are reporting,
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A multi-state salmonella outbreak among people handling turtles, that includes California and Los Angeles County, was announced Tuesday by officials at the County of Los Angeles Department of Public Health Veterinary Public Health.
Over 100 people, mostly children were infected by the same strain and 24 of them had to be hospitalized officials at the Center for Disease Control reported.
Eleven cases of the infection were reported in Southern California that included eight cases in Los Angeles County, officials at L.A. county Public Health reported.
Many human exposures were indirect. One baby became ill after being bathed in a sink where turtle feces had been discarded. Two girls fell ill after swimming in an un-chlorinated pool where turtles had been swimming.
Baking cookies with the Mazurs: Kids make terrible chefs
We have a delicious chocolate chip cookie recipe in our family and it puts the icing on the cake at our family gatherings. Over Christmas my immediate family and I spent time with my uncle and his family in Wichita, KS. My uncle has a seven-year-old boy and three-year-old girl, and after much playing with playdoh and coloring we soon became bored and started looking for a new activity. Why not bake chocolate chip cookies?
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Well, all we had to say was the word “cookie” and the kids were on board with this activity. My uncle and my mom were adamant about washing the kids’ hands before we started cooking, but that was a hopeless cause. Their hands only had a tiny bit of soap on a few fingers, and there wasn’t even much scrubbing involved. It was just a quick rinse. And as soon as the kids were done washing their hands, they put their hands right back in their mouths, on the floor, on the dog, who knows where else.
I pointed out to my mom that letting the kids mix the ingredients and mixing the batter was a terrible idea. They’ll stick their fingers in it, and they’ll sneeze in it. But it had already been decided that EVERYONE was going to help out with the baking, so the kids went ahead and both took turns stirring the cookie dough.
I have to admit, I’m a bit of a germ-a-phobe, except for some cases and watching these kids contaminate perfectly good chocolate chip cookies just broke my heart. I can only imagine what kinds of germs were in that cookie dough, but hopefully all of the germs were killed when the dough was put into the oven.
However, after the oven when the cookies were sitting on the cooling rack there were a few incidents of kids picking up cookies and then putting them back. The kids were the exact opposite of food inspectors. Instead of carefully examining the cookies with clean hands, the kids picked up the cookies with dirty hands and brought them quite close to their face (even sometimes touching it to their nose) to sniff and see if they tasted good.
Needless to say, I did not have a one of the cookies.
Handwashing is one of the major tools used to combat food borne illness. Kids especially must be supervised to ensure that they use an adequate amount of soap and scrub their hands for at least 20-30 seconds.
