E. coli O157:H7 linked to Western Fair in London, Canada, again, 10 years after 159 sickened
There are more people tragically sick with E. coli O157:H7 from what looks like another petting zoo.
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But this would be especially tragic – or hopelessly sad -- if proven.
In 1999, 159 people, mainly children, were thought to be sickened with E. coli O157:H7 traced to goat and sheep at the 1999 Western Fair in London, Ontario. That’s in Canada.
Scott Weese, a clinical studies professor at the University of Guelph (that’s also in Canada) and colleagues reported in the July 2007 edition of Clinical Infectious Diseases that in a study of 36 petting zoos in Ontario between May and October of 2006, they observed infrequent hand washing, food sold and consumed near the animals, and children being allowed to drink bottles or suck on pacifiers in the petting area.
There’s been several outbreaks linked to petting zoos and state fairs in the U.K., Vancouver and Denver; and that’s just this year. A complete table of outbreaks is available at http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/uploads/file/Petting%20zoo%20outbreaks%20chart%20bites(1).pdf.
Now, 10 years later, initial reports are emerging that four people who visited the Western Fair Agri-plex (that’s in London, Ontario, Canada) sometime between September 11 and 20, 2009, have been infected with the same strain of E. coli O157:H7.
The health unit is asking anyone who developed severe diarrhea after visiting the Western Fair to contact them at (519) 663-5317 ext 2330.
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Local is better mantra
Jim Romahn wrote a column for a newspaper in Waterloo, Ontario, which dared to question the blind support of local produce.
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Specifically, Romahn said,
“I have been pleased to watch the development of the movement to buy local food. It is, however, not without its flaws. Farmers need to understand that they must satisfy their customers. Simply marketing their food as local is far from sufficient.”
Romahn provided several examples of local foods that sorta sucked, and several examples of superior product.
“The take-take home message is that the buy local campaigns will fail, and even back-fire, if farmers fail to provide customer-satisfying quality and value.”
Then the letters arrived.
One local produce grower cited Canadian icon Joni Mitchell, “Hey, farmer, farmer, put away the DDT now, give me spots on my apples but leave me the birds and the bees.”
Another said “it’s more fun to shop at farmers’ markets than the big chain grocery stores, anyway. Buying local is a win-win-win situation,” with another chiming in, “I remember when eating locally was the norm and not an option. I don’t profess that it is the perfect solution, but one thing I do know is that when you looked at the horizon it was blue not brown like it is today, and there were fewer people with asthma.”
Romahn didn’t even raise food safety concerns. That would have generated some real hate mail.
Did Maple Leaf's listeria hot dogs sicken a dog?
It’s one thing to sicken and kill humans with food like Maple Leaf cold cuts – just don’t mess with people’s pets.
Carrie Pich of Windsor, Ontario, (right, photo from Windsor Star) is convinced her beloved Tigger -- a two-year-old yellow Labrador retriever -- fell ill over the weekend because he ate Maple Leaf hotdogs that might be tainted with bacteria.
"This could have been a human. I mean, (Tigger) is human to us. But it could've happened to you. My husband could've ate two. He loves hotdogs."
Pich said she bought three packages of hotdogs last week: two packs of Maple Leaf Original Wieners and one pack of Shopsy's Deli-Fresh.
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Both products are among those listed in the recall.
But Pich didn't know that on the evening of July 31, when she cut up three Maple Leaf Original Wieners to put in Tigger's supper, and gave him one more as a late-night treat.
On Saturday morning, Pich woke to find Tigger vomiting blood.
Dr. Ameer Ebrahim, the owner and veterinarian at Cabana @ Howard Pet Hospital said he can't confirm that Tigger suffered from listeriosis, but the dog's symptoms were "very consistent" with bacterial infection, and he wouldn't rule out a connection with the recalled wieners eaten by Tigger.
"That's a very strong coincidence.”
Carolina defeats Jersey with two goals in last minute shocker
I was a Carolina Hurricanes hockey fan even before Chapman moved to NC State in Raleigh.
The team is run by former goalie, Detroit Red Wings executive and Beeton, Ontario, native, Jim Rutherford, who’s a few years younger than my parents but went to the same high school in Alliston, Ontario.
When Carolina unexpectedly won the Stanley Cup in 2006, I was hooked. Rutherford brought the Cup back to Beeton; Amy bought me a Carolina Hurricanes coffee mug at the Charlotte airport. I still use it every morning.
Chapman and family went to one of the playoff games this year – we could never do that in Toronto, even if they did magically make the playoffs (and that’s the future of their son, Jack, right, at a ‘Canes game).
So tonight, with 1:20 left and Carolina trailing 3-2, facing who many call the best goaltender in the game or ever – I’ll always defer to Tony Esposito of the Chicago Black Hawks -- the ‘Canes pop in two goals to take the series.
I’ll miss film director Kevin Smith’s twitters of his beloved New Jersey Devils, and Kevin, don’t kill yourself.
Oh, and this has nothing to do with food safety. I just miss playing hockey.
Bureaucrats blame and battle over Canadian listeria outbreak; still can't answer basic questions
The feds failed miserably during the Aug. 2008 outbreak of listeria that claimed 21 lives across Canada but the province of Ontario handled the outbreak well and that, "compared to other outbreaks, experts will say this went amazingly fast.”
I have no idea who these experts are that Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. David Williams, said would endorse the response to the outbreak other than other bureaucrats and politicians who were quick to praise themselves in the early days of the outbreak. And while media accounts are focusing on the bureaucrat blame game, they’re giving the Williams report little more that a fawning glance.
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The good news is that the report has a basic timeline of who knew what when, at least from the perspective of Ontario bureaucrats. By Aug. 1, 2008, the Ontario “Public Health Division identifies 16 cases of listeriosis in the month of July: the majority were in elderly people who had been in a long-term care home or hospital.”
By Aug. 4, 2008, the Listeria Reference Lab confirms that three food samples from Toronto long-term care home – all opened 1 kg packages of meat cold cuts – are positive for Listeria.
Yet the first public warning didn’t happen until the early hours of Sunday, Aug. 17, 2008.
This is the bad news. Other questions are simply ignored in the report -- like what are long-term care facilities doing serving cold-cuts to the immunocompromised elderly? Should there be warning labels or additional information provided to others at risk, such as pregnant woman? Why aren’t listeria test results made public?
The report does say the medical officer of health for Canada was missing in action during the outbreak, and that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency hampered the overall investigation.
Bad idea: running a restaurant without water, people get sick, owners fined $15,000
Two co-owners of the Yaman Restaurant, a St. Catharines, Ontario, restaurant linked to a 2007 E. coli outbreak, were fined $7,500 each for selling food that made customers sick.
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The problems started when Asaad and Daoud continued to run their business on May 19, 2007, despite the fact water to the restaurant was cut off due to a water-main break.
The restaurant was shut down by the region that month after several people got sick, but reopened with a clean bill of health in August that year.
The owners also pleaded guilty on March 4 to failing to provide hot and cold running water in the food-preparation area of the restaurant.
Raw milk: 'media coverage far beyond its importance'
Here’s the most important point in a column written by long-time Toronto Globe and Mail medical reporter Andre Picard:
The trial of Ontario raw milk farmer Michael Schmidt has garnered media coverage far beyond its importance.
Oh, and the outcome is largely irrelevant.
It seems somewhat absurd to jail a man for selling a product that clients desperately want and which, on the surface at least, seems harmless. But, hey, it happens to pot dealers every day.
What is not harmless is Mr. Schmidt's attack on pasteurization and on food-safety regulations more generally.
Under the guise of civil liberties and freedom, he and his supporters have uttered all kinds of nonsense and portrayed themselves as martyrs for pure food. …
Farmer Schmidt and his acolytes can suckle the milk from the teat of a cow, a goat, a cat, or any other lactating mammal to their hearts' content.
Their rights and freedoms are in no way compromised.
What the law restricts is the commercial sale of raw milk.
Mr. Schmidt tried to circumvent this fact by selling "cow shares" and arguing that his clients were actually proprietors and free to consume raw milk from their own cows.
Whether that little manoeuvre exempts him from the law is up to the courts to decide. But it seems unlikely. After all, bar owners tried this technique to sidestep anti-smoking laws, selling "shares" in their establishment and arguing that patrons were smoking in a private club. Judges saw through the subterfuge. …
Another argument is that meat - which can also contain pathogens - is sold raw, so why not milk? The practical reason for this is obvious. It is easy and efficient to pasteurize milk; it is not practical to cook meat before selling it, but its refrigeration (designed to minimize the growth of bacteria) is mandatory and regulated.
Raw milk is really boring - except for the kids who barf
I try and take baby Sorenne and the dogs out every day for a three-mile walk. The dogs get to run off-leash on the trail, and I get to work on burning off that baby weight.
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Sorenne usually conks out after 15 minutes of walking, and then I catch up on phone calls. It’s my kind of multi-tasking.
A reporter called a few days ago while out on one of these walks. She asked me about raw milk, I said I don’t care, it gets far too much attention and that public health folks have better things to do.
I also told her I had baby brain and was having trouble articulating. There’s a reason people have kids when they’re young -- like I did with the other four – and not when they’re 46. Ah but it’s fun (see the video clip below – and I do compost).
The Canwest News Service story reporting that interview showed up tonight, and has the usual raw milk stuff, with me saying it is difficult to change the minds of people who hold "hocus-pocus scientific theories about the nutrient benefits of raw milk."
Amy laughed at that.
"From a public health point of view, it's a no brainer, don't drink it," Powell said. "From a consumer point of view, why not make raw sprouts illegal because there is the risk of Salmonella or E. coli?"
Powell said he doesn't take issue with adults choosing to drinking raw milk, but it's usually children who get sick because of their parents dietary choices.
What I would have added is that with sprouts and other foods, there’s no simple control like there is with raw milk – pasteurization.
A table of raw dairy outbreaks is available at http://www.foodsafety.ksu.edu/articles/1138/Raw_Milk_Outbreak_Table.pdf
And here’s an op-ed Brae and I wrote a couple of years ago that predated barfblog.com. But the video at the end is far more interesting.
About Choice
Michael Schmidt, Ontario’s raw milk lord along with his evangelical disciples, maintain that their crusade is about choice.
Choice is a Good Thing.
But the 19th century English utilitarian philosopher, John Stuart Mill, noted that absolute choice has limits, stating, "if it [in this case the consumption of raw unpasteurized milk] only directly affects the person undertaking the action, then society has no right to intervene, even if it feels the actor is harming himself."
Excused from Mill’s libertarian principle are those people who are incapable of self-government – children.
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In September, two children who drank raw milk from a Whatcom County dairy in Washington State became ill with E. coli O157:H7. At the same time, four children, including two eight-year-olds in San Diego County, Calif., were hospitalized with E. coli infection after consuming raw milk products.
In December 2005, 18 people in Washington and Oregon, including six children, were infected with E. coli O157:H7 after drinking an unlicensed dairy's raw milk.
Two of the kids almost died.
In April 2005, four cases of E. coli linked to unpasteurized milk were reported to Ontario health officials -- in this case, from an individual who routinely sold raw milk from the back of a vehicle parked in the city of Barrie. Dozens of other outbreaks are listed at: http://www.foodsafety.ksu.edu/articles/384/RawMilkOutbreakTable.pdf
Ontario finance minister Greg Sorbara can obliviously insist that "raw milk is safely distributed in parts of the United States and Europe" but politicians are expected to spin facts.
So are lobbyists. Thus it was that the Toronto contact for an organization strongly advocating raw milk successfully passed himself off in the National Post this morning as a food safety researcher.
Schmidt, celebrity chefs and the wannabe fashionable can devoutly state that grass fed cattle is safer than grain-fed by spinning select scientific data, except cattle raised on diets of grass, hay and other fibrous forage do contain E. coli O157:H7 bacteria in their feces as well as salmonella, campylobacter and others.
Poop happens, especially in a barn, and when it does people, usually kids, will get sick. That's why drinking water is chlorinated and milk is pasteurized.
From Kansas, this looks like an awfully familiar clash of science and faith. But it's not so simple as natural is good, and science -- in this case pasteurization -- is bad. Science can be used to enhance what nature provided; further, society has a responsibility to the many -- philosopher Mill also articulated how the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the one -- to use knowledge to minimize harm.
There are lots of other foods that make people sick. On the one-year anniversary of the Ontario salmonella-in-sprouts outbreak that sickened 650 people, raw sprouts are widely available and no one seems to notice. After being banned for three weeks, raw mung bean sprouts were back on grocery store shelves and being placed ever so gingerly on gourmet, supposedly healthy sandwiches.
This fall, it was spinach, lettuce and tomatoes sickening hundreds across North America. So why aren't Ontario government-types, who treat an outwardly eco-friendly and holistic health product like raw milk as a major biohazard, setting their sights on fresh produce?
Part of the answer is that the risks associated with fresh produce have only been recognized in the past decade; the risks associated with raw milk have been recognized for over a century. Further, unlike fresh produce, there is a relatively simple and benign solution for producing safe milk: pasteurization.
And perhaps that is why health officials are adamant that a ban stay in place: there simply isn't the resources to manage all the microbial food safety outbreaks that strike down 11-13 million Canadians each year, let alone someone proselytizing the virtues of raw milk while flaunting the law.
The only things lacking in pasteurized milk are the bacteria that make people - especially kids - seriously ill. Adults, do whatever you think works to ensure a natural and healthy lifestyle, but please don't impose your dietary regimes on those incapable of protecting themselves … your kids.
Jail sucks, so does the listeria food
It’s been 27 years since I served time in an Ontario correctional institution where I got all corrected and rehabilitated.
I never saw a health inspector. But apparently they do check out the jail food. Good thing too. The Milton, Ontario, food production facility – the ‘Hurst --provides 9,000 meals per day to approximately 4,500 inmates at seven Ontario correctional facilities. And listeria was found last week.
Dr. David Williams, Acting Chief Medical Officer of Health, is alerting individuals who were incarcerated in seven provincial correctional institutions between November 13 and 16, 2008 of a possible exposure to Listeria monocytogenes.
On November 21, 2008, the operator of a correctional services food production facility in Milton informed the Halton Region Health Department that food and environmental samples taken during routine surveillance at the facility had tested positive for Listeria monocytogenes.
The tests relate to samples taken from food that may have been consumed between November 13 and November 16, 2008.
As a result of the positive tests, the Halton Region Health Department issued an order to the operator, Eurest Dining Services, to cease production and distribution of food from the facility and to immediately prepare and implement a plan to sanitize the plant and equipment.
There are no reported cases of listeriosis.
Silence of the lettuce
If there’s one result from the Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak this summer it’s this: public health types sure are reluctant to finger fresh produce in outbreaks of foodborne illness.
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On Tuesday, a spokesman for the bureaucrats club know as the Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirmed they are looking to U.S. suppliers of E. coli-infected romaine lettuce that has been linked to 153 illnesses across southern Ontario, “but he had few other details.”
On Monday, something called the Produce Safety Project, an Initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts at Georgetown University concluded in a report that weaknesses in food safety policy, organization and communications were all displayed during this summer's outbreak of Salmonella Saintpaul.
The report, "Breakdown: Lessons to Be Learned from the 2008 Salmonella Saintpaul Outbreak," represents an in-depth review of the public record of last summer's Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak that caused illnesses in more than 1,400 people across the country. For a full copy of the report and the executive summary click here: http://www.producesafetyproject.org/reports?id=0001
Highlights and recommendations from the report include:
The need for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to use its existing statutory authorities to establish mandatory and enforceable safety standards for fresh produce. While FDA officials said the outbreak showed the need for these standards, they said Congress needs to pass legislation to grant it explicit authority to do so. However, the report notes that FDA has already used existing authorities to put in place preventive safety standards for seafood in 1995 and for juice in 2001.
The need for organizational reforms throughout the public health system for a more coordinated outbreak response. The report raises questions about how timely and effectively data was shared between public health agencies and if it contributed to a delayed identification of jalapeno and serrano peppers as a vehicle for Salmonella Saintpaul.
The need to have established and unified risk communication plans in place before an outbreak. The report documents "dueling" public health messages from various agencies announcing the outbreak, and questions why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed its presentation of data numerous times in the middle of the outbreak.
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I haven’t read the report in detail but will get to it. And while everyone is pointing fingers, recall that epidemiology is a messy thing, but it can prevent people from barfing. Self-censorship could be worse.
Both CFIA and FDA need to establish clear and transparent protocols on when to go public in outbreaks of foodborne illness. No one will be happy, but it will provide a basis for discussion and a way to move forward; once it’s written down, it can be improved.
Mixed messages from Guelph during E. coli O157:H7 outbreak
There are now seven confirmed cases of E. coli O157:H7, all University of Guelph students, and 43 probable cases, as part of a larger Ontario outbreak believed to involve romaine lettuce.
Cameron Clark, health protection program manager with Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health said the outbreak served “as a reminder for anyone who ate at the campus from that date on, or has experienced symptoms of extreme diarrhea, stomach cramps, nausea and vomiting to contact public health.”
I thought it would be a reminder for food service to check their suppliers of lettuce and ask what is being done to ensure the microbial safety of fresh produce.
Clark also said it's important to continually remind people to wash their hands to prevent human-to-human spread and to thoroughly wash fruits and vegetables.
Does continual reminding work? Or is it nagging? Is washing the lettuce in a Pita Pit wrap -- believed to be the Guelph source -- an effective consumer strategy?
E. coli O157:H7 outbreak links point to lettuce
Two local health units said today that lettuce – specifically Romaine lettuce –was the common factor in an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak linked to food service operations in four southern Ontario towns that has sickened 130 people.
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The Canadian Food Inspection Agency responded by saying,
“Canadians are reminded that the best way to prevent foodborne illness is by handling their food safely. … Canadians can also refer to CFIA’s detailed four point plan to prevent E. coli in the home.”
All of the people got sick at restaurants or cafeterias – not in their homes. And contamination of lettuce and other fresh produce needs to be prevented on the farm – there is little consumers or food service can do when contaminated product arrives.
S. Ontario E. coli O157:H7 outbreaks linked; produce eyed
There are now 24 confirmed cases of E. coli O157:H7 in the southern Ontario towns of Niagara, Burlington, Guelph and Waterloo, with some of the cases sharing the same genetic fingerprint.
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Another 64 suspected cases are being investigated.
Dr. Doug Sider of Niagara Region Public Health said,
"It seems likely there was contaminated produce in the commercial market being distributed to restaurants back to the mid-part of October.”
In Waterloo Region, two high-school students contracted the bacteria and public health officials expect to keep the cafeteria at St. Mary's High School in Kitchener closed for a few more days.
The region's associate medical officer of health, Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang, said provincial investigators are studying whether the outbreak is linked to romaine lettuce.
University of Guelph spokesperson Chuck Cunningham said "as a precaution" the university has removed lettuce from the main University Centre food court, cafeterias in residences and the Creelman dining hall. That's because lettuce is part of the probe by public health and the provincial Ministry of Health, he added.
E. coli O157:H7 outbreaks close 4 Ontario restaurants
At least one media outlet is reporting this morning that outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 in southern Ontario have been linked by DNA fingerprinting.
But I'd like to see that confirmed elsewhere.
Dr. Robin Williams, medical officer of Health for Niagara Region, said,
"We are trying to track through the supply and the source of the foods ... we're not just looking at the restaurants (involved) we're also looking at the cross-link between distributors.”
So far 208 food samples have been taken from those restaurants for analysis
The Little Red Rooster in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., was closed last Friday to let Niagara Region Public Health officials investigate potential sources of contamination. On Tuesday, M.T. Bellies in nearby Welland, Ont., was closed. The number of sick related to these two eateries has climbed to 31, with nine confirmed.
Thursday afternoon, Johnathan's Family Restaurant of Burlington, Ontario, after the Halton Region Health Department linked several new cases of E. coli O157:H7 to the '50s-style diner.
Owner Greg Tasoulis told the Toronto Star yesterday he had no option.
"A health department representative came and said `I want you to close the restaurant down.' … How do they know it doesn't come from the lettuce I got from our supplier. What if it's not us? The cost is tremendous to us ... over 5,000 people come through here in a week.”
An outbreak at a Harvey's fast-food restaurant in the central Ontario city of North Bay has led to 237 cases of E. coli O157:H7, of which 46 are laboratory confirmed. At this time there is no link between the southern Ontario outbreak and the North Bay outbreak.
Raw milk crusader Michael Schmidt: A thoroughly modern Marie Antoinette
Amy and I went to Versailles last summer while touring around France, and I’ve seen that Marie Antoinette movie so I consider myself well-versed in the French aristocracy of the late 18th century.
Toronto Globe and Mail columnist John Doyle explored the same themes this morning in a review of a documentary about Ontario raw milk crusader Michael Schmidt which is being broadcast tonight on Wallyworld – sorry, Newsworld, Canada’s cable news program.
It's a fascinating documentary with many passionate declarations on whether farmers should be allowed to sell raw milk and the public should be allowed to consume it. It's rich in irony.
It's also an enraging program, largely because the real issue is the existence of the urban bourgeoisie's delusion of invincibility, ignorance about science and tendency to posture in order to justify selfishness.
Schmidt himself is a fascinating character, self-mythologizing relentlessly and shrewdly. He's always in a hat or cap and presents himself as an artist. No doubt his little farm is clean and well-run, but when Schmidt and his cabal of celebrity-chef supporters appear together and prattle on about taste and claim to be against "big business," they're just nitwits. …
The vulnerability of children is a key issue. Sure, adults are entitled to choice - but allowed the choice of giving unpasteurized milk to children, who have no choice? Call me peculiar, but the safety of children has nothing to do with the "nanny state" interfering in some alleged gourmand's taste for dangerous foods. One reason the nanny state exists is to protect the young, the elderly and the vulnerable. …
Watching Schmidt and his supporters, I was reminded of the one of the phenomena of the Romantic period in Europe - all those pastoral elegies of the 1700s, in which the poet idealizes rustic life, especially the shepherd, for the enjoyment of aristocrats.
That phenomenon peaked, I suppose, in France, in the late 18th century, when it was a fad at the French court to play at being part of the pastoral world. Marie Antoinette liked nothing better than to pretend she was a shepherdess (that's her Versailles farmhouse, right and below). It was an indulgent fantasy, very far removed from the reality of rustic life. Then came the Revolution. And little wonder. The raw-milk issue is about today's Marie Antoinettes.
Do Michael Schmidt's cows 'produce wonderful abstract-expressionist paintings in their off hours'
The Owen Sound Sun Times has had enough of raw milk evangelist Michael Schmidt.
The Ontario paper correctly observes that the Ontario government does not have the capacity to ensure that unpasteurized milk is safe to distribute and Michael Schmidt does not have the right to pick and choose which laws he wishes to obey.
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Schmidt's raw-milk operation may be the most sparkling-clean in all of Ontario. His methods of storage and transport may be beyond reproach. His milk cows may be grass-fed, free-range, pest-free and of above average intelligence. For all we know they may produce wonderful abstract-expressionist paintings in their off hours.
That does not change the fact that drinking raw milk brings with it a heightened risk of salmonella, E. coli and Listeriosis. Nor does it change the fact that pasteurization saves lives.
Anyone who doesn't believe this should ask someone old enough to remember the days before pasteurization was introduced.
If selling raw milk were legal, it would in short order become a big business. The Ontario government, knowing the statistical risks of raw-milk distribution, would be legally and morally responsible for ensuring that no one got sick as a result.
That is a chance no responsible, reasonable government can or will take.
Therefore, Schmidt's crusade will fail. It should fail.
One man, however impassioned, cannot set health policy for all Ontarians, in the face of medical evidence that doing so would put people at risk.
Ontario Farmer Michael Schmidt found guilty of contempt of court in raw milk case
An organic farmer accused of ignoring a court order to stop selling unpasteurized milk was found guilty of contempt of court Monday morning in Newmarket, Ont.
Michael Schmidt has run a co-operative organic dairy farm near Owen Sound, Ont., for more than 20 years.
Contempt charges were sought by York Region officials, who fear there are health risks for people consuming the raw milk, including the risk of spreading salmonella, E. coli and listeria.
Schmidt also still faces 20 charges laid by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Grey-Bruce Health Unit. That trial is expected to begin in early 2009.
A table of raw dairy outbreaks is available at http://www.foodsafety.ksu.edu/articles/384/RawMilkOutbreakTable.pdf
and an updated one here.
146 stricken with E. coli from Harvey's in Canada
The North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit is now reporting a total of 146 cases of which 24 are lab confirmed for E. coli O157:H7, linked to dining at a Harvey’s Restaurant on Algonquin Avenue in North Bay, Ontario.
Included are cases being investigated by 6 other health units in Ontario, and the people who are ill range from 1 to 90 years old. Some are in hospital receiving treatment, while most are recovering at home.
“The Health Unit is screening staff at the restaurant located in North Bay. This includes collecting samples and conducting interviews,” reports Dr. Catherine Whiting, Medical Officer of Health for the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit. Health Unit staff continue to collect information and analyze data to ensure that all possible sources of E. coli O157:H7 are being investigated. City of North Bay emergency crews also conducted extra testing on the municipal water last weekend. Lab test results confirm that drinking water is not the source.
Lettuce linked to 36 ill in Michigan, 3 in Ontario, came from California
The Detroit Free Press is reporting that state agriculture officials say the tainted iceberg lettuce that has been linked to 36 E. coli O157:H7 illnesses in Michigan and 3 in Ontario originated in California before being shipped to Michigan.
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Aunt Mid’s Produce of Detroit was identified as one of the local suppliers. The company immediately stopped its lettuce distribution, said Philip Riggio, chief executive officer, and had its supply and processing facilities tested by outside experts. The tests found no evidence of contamination.
The Michigan Department of Agriculture also tested Aunt Mid’s lettuce, with no findings of E. coli, but, “we never had product available that was tested from the outbreak timeframe, primarily due to the perishable nature of the product we dealt with,” said Jennifer Holton, MDA spokesperson.
A Michigan State University student sickened by E. coli-tainted lettuce is suing Aunt Mid’s. Samantha Steffen of East Lansing began suffering from bloody diarrhea and was hospitalized with dehydration in mid-September.
“At this point, based on testing…I don’t believe the lawsuit has any merit,” said Riggio.
Canadian food safety bureaucrats continue to stumble -- and more people are sick
I started FSnet, the food safety news, shortly after the Jack-in-the-Box outbreak in Jan. 1993. Sure, Al Gore hadn’t invented the Internet yet, but those of us in universities had access, and I started distributing food safety stories.
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It all seems sorta quaint now, what with Google alerts and blogs and RSS feeds, but my goal was straightforward: during the Jack-in-the-Box outbreak, a number of spokesthingies said, they didn’t know E. coli O157:H7 was a risk, they didn’t know that Washington State had raised its recommended final cooking temperature for ground beef, they didn’t know what was going on.
So FSnet was conceived and made widely available so that no one could legitimately say, they didn’t know.
Yet that’s exactly what federal bureaucrats in Canada said last night when questioned about the delay in warning those in southwestern Ontario that lettuce from Aunt Mid’s in Detroit, implicated in a large Michigan-based E. coli O57:H7 outbreak that has stricken at least 34, had made its way across the border.
And now at least two people in Ontario have tested positive for the same strain of E. coli O57:H7.
David Musyj, president and chief executive officer of the Windsor (Ontario) Regional Hospital, said last night that authorities in Michigan issued a public-health alert about the link to Aunt Mid’s iceberg on Friday, Sept. 26, 2008, but the Canadian Food Inspection Agency didn’t bother notifying Windsor health officials until Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2008.
"What happened between Sept. 26 and Oct. 1? Clearly there is a communication gap that occurred. I want an investigation to be launched into this to find out why there was a communication gap, whether it was our CFIA or whether it was the State of Michigan."
Dustin Pike, a spokesman for Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, said in an e-mail yesterday that the Public Health Agency of Canada notified the CFIA of the E. coli outbreak in Michigan potentially linked to the lettuce on Tuesday, and after determining that the product had been imported into Canada, the CFIA contacted Windsor health authorities the following morning. …
Davendra Sharma, a food-safety recall specialist at the CFIA, said the agency acted promptly when it heard of the outbreak to identify who in Canada purchased the product and to notify Windsor officials.
Again, I started FSnet all those years ago so bureaucrats and others couldn’t say, I didn’t know.
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The Michigan outbreak was first publicly reported on Sept. 16, 2008. Lettuce was identified as the primary suspect on Friday, Sept. 26 2008. Why it took until Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2008 for someone at Health Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada or the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to notice there was an outbreak next door in product that could be shipped to Canada is baffling.
Especially because of all the bureaucrats that read FSnet. According to tonight’s numbers, 27 people at PHAC, 149 people at Health Canada, and 316 people at CFIA receive FSnet. That’s almost 500 people, and no one noticed?
Tonight, test results have, unfortunately, revealed that two cases of E. coli O157:H7 in Chatham-Kent, Ontario, are of the same strain identified in 38 cases in the United States. All of the cases are thought to be linked to shredded iceberg lettuce distributed by Aunt Mid's Produce Company. This product is distributed in five pound industrial bags to institutions such as hospitals and long-term care homes, as well as restaurants in southwestern Ontario.
Musyj of the Windsor hospital captures the failings of CFIA when he says:
"Once something is thought of seriously enough to raise a red flag, then you better call everyone affected by the red flag. You can't wait for a death to happen to notify everyone."
Although that seems to have been the CFIA policy with listeria: with 20 dead and counting, it’s a bad policy.
CFIA, what is your policy on going public with information that can prevent illness? Is your primary priority to protect public health? If so, can you provide evidence to back such a claim?
And how can any of you say you didn’t know?
Oh, and for those who see salvation in a single food inspection agency, as is often discussed in the U.S., please notice the dysfunctional mess that is CFIA.
Canadian train quarantine: System worked well, except that person who died was 43, not 86, not mid-60s
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Except for some errant communications bout the female who died.She was initially identified Friday as in her 60s, by Saturday she was 86, and today, authorities said she was a 43-year-old from South Africa.
Don't barf in public; it's against the law
Council was also set to discuss a mandatory 2 a.m. closing-time for hotdog vendors.Apparently that's to keep munchie-driven zombies from roaming the streets.
Patrick Lacey, 25, said,
"What are they really going to do about vomiting in public? … you can't stop someone from throwing up. Throwing up in public is embarrassing enough as it is; you don't need to get arrested."
I can't wait for the next norovirus outbreak to hit Windsor.
33 Salmonella cases at Ontario Pita Pit
The London Free Press reports that 33 people are now reporting symptoms of Salmonella believed linked to the Pita Pit at the University of Western Ontario Community Centre.Dr. Bryna Warshawsky, associate medical officer of health with the Middlesex-London health unit, said 15 of the salmonella cases have been lab-confirmed.
The health unit has inspected the restaurant twice since the issue first surfaced, said Warshawsky, and deemed it safe to operate. The task now is to determine if the outlet received contaminated food product, or if something happened there.
