BMJ Press Releases, Saturday 2 November 1996
Volume 313 No 7065
EMBARGO: Friday 1 November 00.01
Detective work in food poisoning - the case of the kosher snack
[International epidemiological and microbiological study of outbreak of salmonella agona infection from a ready to eat savoury snack - paper I: England, Wales and the United States and paper II: Israel]
[Editorial: International investigation of foodborne disease outbreaks]- This week's BMJ reports how international collaboration between public health
laboratories - a kind of food poisoning Interpol - led to identification of a
kosher savoury snack as the source of a salmonella outbreak covering at least
four countries.
Young children were particularly affected in an outbreak of salmonella agona infection in England and Wales. Other cases were reported in North America and were widespread in Israel where the source had not been identified. A case control study by the London based Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) implicated a peanut flavoured ready to eat snack imported from Israel where it was very popular with children. A government food hazard warning and voluntary recall by the manufacturer successfully interrupted transmission of the foodborne illness in England and Wales.
Staff from the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre, PHLS,* London, state in the BMJ: "The outbreak showed the value of the SaIm-Net surveillance system and its links outside Europe..." The kosher snack food has been eaten by children as young as 10 months old. Investigators in the UK noted the geographical cluster of the food poisoning and that most of the children had Jewish surnames.
A key message of the papers is that large widespread international outbreaks of foodborne disease can result when faults occur in modern food production processes . Professors Robert Tauxe and James Hughes, of the US National Centre for Infectious Diseases write in an editorial that the outbreak highlights the critical role that public health laboratories play in disease control, making food supplies to all the countries safer. In the past, food poisoning outbreaks were often thought of as local events effecting a group of people who all ate at one place. Now, when food becomes contaminated, the food poisoning outbreak can span continents.
[* The Public Health Laboratory Service celebrates its golden jubilee this coming week.] Contact:
Dr O N Gill,
PHLC,
Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre
London NW9 5EQTel: 0181 200 6868 x4462
or 0181 200 1295 via x3647PHLS press officer
Christine MurphyFax: 01812007868
Prof James Hughes
National Center for Infectious Diseases
Atlanta,
Georgia,
USTel: 001 404 639 3401
Fax: 001 404 639 3039
e-mail JMH2@CIDOD1.EM.CDC.GOV
Salmonella typhimurium - a rising threat
[Editorial: Outbreaks of salmonellosis]- A warning that one form of food poisoning - Salmonella typhimurium
(definitive type 104) - is rising and is increasingly resistant to many
antibiotics, comes in an editorial in this week's BMJ.
Pork sausages, chicken and unspecified meat paste have been implicated in this form of food poisoning as well as contact with sick farm animals. Reports to the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) of illness caused by salmonella typhimurium dt104 have risen from 259 in 1990 to 3,837 in 1995, and, writes Dr John Cowden, "there is no reason to suspect a decline in 1996". He states that this type of salmonella is a greater threat than the S.enteritidis variety linked with eggs and poultry which is now on the decline in poultry as well as humans.
Contact:
(Dr John Cowden not available until 5.11.96)
spokesperson via PHLS press officer Christine Murphy
0181 200 1295 x 3647
Demand for donated eggs by ethnis minority groups exceeds the supply
- Egg donation is an established fertility treatment in the UK. A survey
reported in this week's BMJ (letters) reveals the demand for eggs from women in
ethnic minority groups far exceeds the current supply.
A telephone survey of the 46 licensed egg donation clinics showed that although 275 couples who were not white requested egg donation in the previous two years, only 17 non white women had volunteered to become anonymous donors.
Clinics were asked what they would do for non white couples requesting egg donation: 12 of the 46 clinics would offer eggs from a white donor after counselling. A further five would arrange white eggs for an Asian couple but not for a black couple. Three clinics would offer free in vitro fertilisation to non white women in exchange for half their eggs. The authors, Dr Birdsall and Sister Edwards from the Oxford IVF Unit, say while egg donors are needed, clinics need to develop strategies to increase awareness of the need for egg donors among all racial groups.
Contact:
Dr Mary Birdsall is now in Auckland, New ZealandTel : 00649 520 0499
Fax: 00649 524 0836Sister Janet Edwards
IVF Unit
Oxford Radcliffe HospitalTel : 0186522 1900
Fax: 01865 22 2031
Aftershock
[What happened to elderly people in the great Hanshin earthquake]
[Medical staff suffered severe stress after earthquake in Kobe, Japan]- More than half the deaths in the great Hanshin earthquake involved people
over 60 years old and elderly women fared worse than men. But even among
survivors, the sufferings of old people were greater than those of other
earthquake victims. A report in this week's BMJ describes what happened and what
can be learned for future disasters.
Hospital nurses who provided care during the earthquake suffered severe stress as a result says a second Japanese study in BMJ. The author suggests mental health care during and after disasters should be considered for medical staff as well as patients.
Contact: Dr Noritoshi Tanida lecturer
Japanese Society for Hospice and Home Care
Hyogo College of Medicine,
JapanTel: 0081 798 45 6662/3
(home 0081 798 47 7473)
Fax: 0081 798 456661Dr Masahuru Uemoto
Dept Psychiatry
Nishi-Kobe Medical
Centre, Japan
Tel: 0081 783 417451 x 5520
Fax: 0081 783 822 080
EMBARGO: 00.01 HRS FRIDAY 1 NOVEMBER 1996
PLEASE STATE THE BMJ AS THE SOURCE OF ALL ARTICLES USED
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