Categories: Foodborne, Response
January 27th, 2009 3:20 pm ET -
Ali S. Khan
The current Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak associated with a peanut processing plant in Blakely, Georgia, appears to have begun in September 2008, and was first detected in mid-November 2008 by DNA fingerprinting of Salmonella in public health labs across the country [last blog link]. The broad distribution of peanut butter and peanut paste shipped to food manufacturing companies from this single plant throughout the country has triggered the recall of nearly two hundred food products and exposed a critical factor supporting the continued emergency of food-borne outbreaks.
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Categories: Foodborne, Response
January 14th, 2009 2:30 pm ET -
Ali S. Khan
The Enteric Diseases programs at CDC have been collaborating with state public health officials, the USDA-Food Safety and Inspection Service, and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to investigate a multi-state outbreak of human infections due to Salmonella serotype Typhimurium affecting almost 400 persons. There are numerous interesting features of this outbreak that highlight the complex issues I discussed recently for foodborne outbreaks. In this case, there was an early unrelated, but overlapping outbreak, several PulseNet patterns involved in the outbreak, a State Health Department being the first to pull the trigger for a product advisory, and a contaminated ingredient that is in many foods.
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Categories: Vectorborne
January 5th, 2009 2:25 pm ET -
Ali S. Khan
Ebola-Reston [initial identification] virus is a mystery. Although quite deadly in monkeys, this Ebola cousin doesn’t appear to cause human illness. And who knows how it got to or independently evolved in the Philippines – a good 7,000 miles and really big ocean away from its Zaire, Sudan, Cote D’Ivoire, and Bundibugyo brethren in Africa. If that wasn’t enough, our colleagues at Plum Island recently suspected it as the cause of disease in some sick pigs for the first time from the Philippines that happened to be submitted for testing for Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS).
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Categories: Foodborne, Response
December 1st, 2008 2:18 pm ET -
Ali S. Khan
During the recent investigation of the outbreak of Salmonella Saintpaul, CDC often mentioned that the overall “outbreak investigation is complex and difficult.” This complexity and difficulty extends to the hundreds of outbreaks that never make national headlines as local public health officials trace outbreaks to specific venues and food items. CDC assists local public health officials to investigate about 100 multi-state clusters or confirmed foodborne outbreaks each year; many of which never lead to a specific implicated food item; approximately 10 that are particularly large, complex or extended become formal Epi-AID investigations. The use of a fingerprinting system for disease agents has greatly enhanced our ability to detect outbreaks but increases the effort to review suspicious clusters. For example, we now get over 60,000 patterns added to the database each year. This week, CDC’s OutbreakNet Team is evaluating 35 different clusters to determine their significance. This includes an investigation of an outbreak of Salmonella Poona with the same fingerprint pattern.
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Categories: Foodborne, Response
November 18th, 2008 1:59 pm ET -
Ali S. Khan
I’ve spent many years roaming this planet and, without doubt, we have amongst the safest food in the world. However, the largest foodborne outbreak in the last 10 years with an estimated 15, 000 cases is a vivid reminder that a number of factors will continue to drive outbreaks even here in the US. A report on the Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak by the Pew Charitable Trust’s Produce Safety Project identified many gaps in the nation’s food safety system and highlights a response system that I equate with driving while looking through the rearview mirror.
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Categories: Vectorborne
October 17th, 2008 1:49 pm ET -
Ali S. Khan
Immunohistochemistry stain of the liver from a fatal case of Lassa Fever.
An active, young Zambian safari guide fell ill last month with an unexplained illness that rapidly progressed to her death after medical evacuation to South Africa. Three additional people who had close contact with her or her body fluids, a paramedic, a nurse and a hospital worker, also shortly became ill — and despite all medical efforts, have also died. A fifth case, also a nurse, is currently hospitalized and receiving Ribavirin treatment. CDC’s unexplained death and severe illness group has supported the Ministry of Health and South African scientists of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) to identify a novel arenavirus as the cause of this medical mystery.
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