Trip Tip a Day

The Robert Koch Institute explains how they nailed the sprouts.. http://www.rki.de/cln_169/nn_217400/EN/Home/PM082011.html Recipe-based restaurant cohort study (italics and bolding added) "With a high probability, the results of the „recipe-based restaurant cohort study” finally permit narrowing down the source of the infection to the consumption of sprouts. It was possible to apply this methodological approach only after a sufficient number of restaurant customers could be identified to ensure adequate statistical power of this analysis. To ascertain the consumption of raw fruit and vegetables by patients and controls more objectively and less dependently on memory, RKI used the following approach in the “recipe-based restaurant cohort study”: Five groups (travel groups, clubs, etc) that comprised a total of 112 participants and included 19 individuals who acquired EHEC infection were questioned regarding the foods they consumed after eating in a common restaurant. Additionall

Foodography.  I love to whip out the IPHONE for a picture of a beautifully prepared dish, to document a fun new restaurant, or the food on a trip to an exotic land.  Here is a photo I took last weekend at work.  Jessie, our superb baker and co-worker treated us to her homemade fruit tart - a feast for the eyes and so delicious.   Well, photos of the dishes from a restaurant in Germany helped nail the sprouts as the culprit in the E. coli 0104 outbreak, as they were present on the sick diner's plates.   "Today, German officials announced that they are now certain that organic bean sprouts are the source of the epidemic of enterohemorrhagic  Escherichia coli  (EHEC) in their country—and diners who took out their cameras before digging in have proven to be a big help." You can enlarge the photo and see the sprouts if you go to the link below: http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/06/restaurant-photos-help-nail-bean.html?ref=ra

"EHEC outbreak: BfR confirms contamination of sprouts with O104:H4  11.06.2011 Who confirmed?   The  National Reference Laboratory for   Escherichia coli   at the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR). Their mission:  "Identify risks - Protect health" - this is the guiding principle for the work of the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment ( BfR ) in the field of consumer health protection. What is the news (and it's big)?  "Strain from the sprouts is identical to strain from the infected   patients" Further reading : "Scientists of the National Reference Laboratory for  Escherichia coli  at the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) have confirmed the results of the  Land  authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia: Raw sprouts contaminated with EHEC, which originated from the household of EHEC patients in North Rhine-Westphalia, were contaminated with the EHEC strain O104:H4." For the microbiologists: " In a real-time PCR of

Breakthrough?  Sprouts have been in, then out, now in again as the possible source for the E. coli outbreak in Europe.  4 Interesting snippets in the news today: Glossary - EHEC - Enterohemorrhagic E. coli                STEC - Shiga toxin producing E. coli                Spiegel Online and WHO call it EHEC, the CDC is calling it STEC.                  HUS - Hemolytic uremic syndrome (involves the kidney failure)                 1)  Scientists 'Find EHEC Bacteria at Sprout Farm' from Spiegel International Online: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,767935,00.html    6/10/2011 "Health authorities in Germany have finally been able to show that the pathogens which caused the deadly EHEC outbreak came from sprouts at an organic farm in the Uelzen district. According to SPIEGEL ONLINE information, the breakthrough was made by scientists in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Final verification, however, is still pending. As of Friday it remained unc

The bacteria known for obliterating kidneys has moved on to the neurological system: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,767569,00.html

Simply put - in the U.S. we are looking for 0157:H7   (Shiga Toxin producing E. coli)   as a marker for food contamination. HOWEVER, there are six non-1057 STEC (Shiga Toxin producing E. coli) that we NEED to be looking for.   Here, in the interest of informing and not overwhelming you are 2 very important paragraphs from Food Safety News, http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/06/a-us-response-to-the-european-e-coli-outbreak/ "In fact, numbers released this week by the Centers for Disease Control show that the United States has about the  same number of non-O157 STECs as O157:H7 STEC . This means that it is time to change the way we handle these deadly pathogens. In 1994, Mike Taylor declared E. coli O157:H7 to be  an adulterant in meat  and poultry products when he was Undersecretary of Food Safety at USDA. In recent years, USDA has repeatedly been asked to address this and declare the "Big Six" non-O157 STECs to be adulterants as well, but so far no action ha

June 7, 2011 Germany's terrific scientists at the Robert Koch Institute appear hampered by a bureaucratic maze that does not exist in health care crisis management in the USA. Der Spiegel Online states "The country (Germany), they say, is surprisingly ill-equipped to handle outbreaks on this scale because of its complex bureaucratic structures and regionally fragmented division of responsibilities. Experts say Germany's alert system is  rudimentary compared to those in other developed nations. " http://www.rki.de/cln_144/nn_217400/EN/Home/EHEC__O104__H4,templateId=raw,property=publicationFile.pdf/EHEC_O104_H4.pdf "While news of a potentially deadly outbreak can take up to two weeks to reach top German health authorities, other developed nations such as the United States and Japan, have instituted early warning mechanisms." http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,766969,00.html CDC updates statement: http://www.cdc.gov

European E. coli outbreak June 2011 Of concern to anyone traveling through or sending a loved one to Europe right now is the deadliest outbreak of E. coli in history. Here are my tips, as a microbiologist and Mom: 1)  We all know not to eat raw salad in India.  Apply the same to Europe (FOR NOW). 2)  We all know not to eat unwashed fruits in India.  Apply the same to Europe. 3)  Health depts. in Europe have NOT linked the bacterium to a food YET.  So, make sure any hamburger type dishes are cooked to the medium to well done point.  That mean NO pink.  Could there still be an undercooked meat link?  Let's be safe here and say maybe. 4)  Cutting through an unwashed melon could bring bacteria from the outside of the melon to the inside where you eat it.  Wash your melon!  Which brings us to point #5... 5)  If it's from a restaurant and it's raw, and you can't see how it has been washed or prepared, then just avoid it (FOR NOW).  There are plenty of coo