Germ
linked to dairy kills three in outbreak: CDC
Thu Oct 9, 2008 10:36am EDT Source of Article: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE49857720081009?sp=true WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - An outbreak of Listeria food poisoning from a They said the outbreak, while rare, demonstrates how
difficult it can be to even detect, let alone trace, foodborne
illness. It also shows that local health officials must move swiftly even at
the hint of an outbreak. "Dairy A was a family owned and operated milk
product pasteurizing, bottling, and processing facility located in central
Massachusetts; the dairy had operated for nearly 50 years," the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in its weekly report on death
and disease. The CDC does not identify businesses featured in its
reports. Investigation showed that an 87-year-old man who
died at the end of 2007 was infected with a particular strain of Listeria. DNA testing linked the death to four other cases
going back to June of that year -- two other elderly men who died, a woman
who had a healthy but premature baby, and another woman whose baby was
stillborn. All five had consumed milk from the dairy. Listeria can kill the very young and very old and
endanger pregnancies. In most healthy younger people, it causes fever and
stomach distress but is not usually diagnosed because the patients rarely go
to the doctor. The CDC estimates that 2,500 people become seriously
ill with listeriosis each year and 500 die in the An investigation determined that the dairy had been
pasteurizing its milk products properly. The CDC said the milk likely had
been contaminated after this process. The dairy closed after the investigation. "The findings from this outbreak underscore the
importance of physical facility and equipment design and cross-contamination
controls, particularly in older facilities that manufacture perishable,
ready-to-eat foods that have a long shelf-life and that support the growth of
L. monocytogenes under refrigeration," the
report reads. The CDC and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
have been under pressure to do more to prevent foodborne
illnesses after recent high-profile outbreaks, including hundreds of cases of
Salmonella from April to June of this year linked to peppers imported from (Reporting by Maggie Fox; editing by Will Dunham and
Mohammad Zargham) |
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