11 hospitalized, 125 sick from South Carolina fundraiser
At least four more people who ate food sold last week at a fundraiser at a Conway church have been hospitalized as of today, said Jim Beasley, spokesman for the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.
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A total of 11 people have been hospitalized, and DHEC officials believe there are about 125 people who sought physician care for gastro-intestinal illness symptoms in the area, Beasley said.
Conway Medical Center performed tests on three samples from patients and it appears that salmonella is expected, Beasley said.
People started becoming ill with symptoms such as abdominal cramping, nausea, diarrhea and vomiting, after buying and eating food sold at the Cedar Grove Baptist Church in Conway to raise money to benefit the family of an ill child, said Dr. Covia L. Stanley, director of DHEC's Region 6 public health office, which serves Horry, Georgetown and Williamsburg counties, said in a news release Tuesday.
The meals, which included barbecue pork, baked sweet potatoes, cole slaw and rolls, were prepared at a local hunting club, Stanley said.
DHEC officials are asking that anyone who purchased any of the roughly 1,450 plates of food sold at the fundraiser to throw leftovers away and to contact their private healthcare physician if they are experiencing any symptoms.
Passover potluck vomit
Authorities are investigating what made more than 70 people attending a Passover event in Franconia, N.H., ill after eating at a potluck event.
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State health officials said 150 people were attending the event when the illness broke out Saturday night, WMUR-TV of Manchester, N.H., reported Monday.
The New Hampshire Health and Human Services Public Health Lab was conducting tests to determine if the illness was salmonella, the report said.
Do you know where that finger's been? The risks of potlucks
Yesterday was the departmental Xmas potluck.
I didn’t go.
Not cause of the newborn, I just, on those rare occasions I get invited, avoid potlucks. There’s the ‘Hey, Food Safety Man, would you eat this,’ to which I politely smile and say sure, the biggest risk is not eating at all, cause I’m trying to be publicly polite, and meanwhile I’m not touching the sprout salad, the unpasteurized juices, the raw oysters (a big hit in Kansas) and the beef that’s been sitting at room temperature for 14 hours.
Besides, once I start pontificating, I can’t shut up. Maybe I just like to hear myself talk.
Some middle school students in Birmingham, Alabama, found out the hard way – meaning they barfed a lot – the risks of potlucks.
The Birmingham News reports that nearly half of the students in a Smith Middle School language arts class became ill Friday after tasting meals that students had prepared as part of an assignment.
Birmingham schools spokeswoman Michaelle Chapman said the students were to write about their favorite dish and how it was prepared. The teacher allowed them to make and bring the dish to class if they wished.
Of the 18 students, 16 of them brought in dishes and eight students got sick after tasting them.
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After seeing this story, one colleague wrote his daughter’s principal, asking if there was a policy about bringing food into schools to share with others. I did the same years ago after my daughter was almost exposed to unpasteurized cider as part of a class trip to the farm.
20 sick, 2 serious, with E. coli O157:H7 after church potluck
Teresa Porter with the Baldwin County Health Department, said,"Three of the people infected are still in the hospital. And there's an two-to-ten day incubation period for this organism so we've got a couple more days to go."
Two brothers reportedly 10- and 8-years-old sickened in the outbreak remain in fair and good condition today after being transferred from Mobile to Birmingham.
Associate Pastor Ken Wilson at the Eastern Shore Baptist Church said,
"It's affected all of us as a church family. We're doing whatever we can to help the families affected and we're cooperating with the health department."
A table of church-community-potluck style outbreaks is available at http://www.foodsafety.ksu.edu/en/article-details.php?a=2&c=5&sc=25&id=881.
We say, anyone serving food, especially in a public setting, should have some minimal food safety training.
