Public Health Matters Blog Posts
Linking Raw Cookie Dough to an E. coli Outbreak
Contaminated raw cookie dough wasn’t on anyone’s mind as my public health colleagues and I were searching for the cause of a multistate outbreak of E. coli infections. I’m one of the Epidemic Intelligence Service officers in CDC’s Enteric Diseases Epidemiology Branch, which monitors and investigates foodborne diseases together with CDC’s Enteric Disease Laboratory Branch Read More >
Posted on by 9 CommentsOf Pigs and Men
When I started working at CDC as an EIS Officer in the Influenza program, there was a lot of focus on pigs as the source of novel influenza viruses. It was called the mixing vessel theory and in retrospect it was my introduction to the importance of infectious disease ecology to prevent microbial threats. Pigs Read More >
Posted on by 1 CommentTrichinellosis: “Bearly” Cooked
In late October 2007, a hunter in Northern California shot a black bear and brought the carcass home for a community feast the next day. At least 38 people ate a variety of dishes, some of which included bear meat which was not fully cooked. Within a week, people who had attended the event started Read More >
Posted on by 1 CommentClostridium difficile – an Emerging Zoonosis?
The media has recently given attention to studies [G. Songer; Rodriguez-Palacios A, et al] that isolated a bacterium called Clostridium difficile from meats sold in grocery stores. C. difficile causes a severe colon infection and is generally acquired in hospitals and long-term care facilities. Although most of the cases of C. difficile infection are healthcare Read More >
Posted on by 11 CommentsSnails, Slugs, and Semi-slugs: A Parasitic Disease in Paradise
CDC plays a vital role supporting state health departments, particularly with management of rare or lesser-known pathogens. Recently, CDC’s Division of Parasitic Diseases (DPD) was contacted by the Hawaii Department of Health (HI DOH) for advice regarding three cases of presumed Angiostrongylus cantonensis (AC) infection. AC, commonly called the rat lungworm, is a parasitic worm Read More >
Posted on by 23 CommentsNCIS Atlanta: Severe Rash Illness in Baja
A mysterious cluster of illnesses and deaths of unknown cause was recently reported in Baja California, a Mexican state that – as the Spanish translation suggests – is situated just below the California-Mexico border. Our shared border with Mexico fosters a mutual interest in epidemiologic events like this one — where time is of the Read More >
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