Germs In Dairy Products Can Be Deadly
Posted on: Friday, 10 October 2008, 08:35 CDT
U.S. health officials warned of a Listeria food poisoning outbreak from a Massachusetts dairy that killed three elderly men and caused the stillbirth of a baby and the premature birth of a second baby.
CDC officials say the rare outbreak shows how hard it can be to detect, let alone trace, foodborne illness.
It highlights the need for local health officials to 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 report. The business was not identified.
An 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.
That included two other elderly men who died, a woman who had a healthy but premature baby, and another woman whose baby was stillborn.
All five claim they consumed milk from the Massachusetts dairy, which has since been closed.
Listeria is a deadly threat to the old and young, and can endanger pregnancies.
In healthy younger people, it causes fever and stomach distress but is not usually diagnosed because the patients rarely go to the doctor.
Every year, the CDC estimates that 2,500 people become seriously ill with listeriosis, and 500 die in the United States.
A federal investigation determined the dairy had been pasteurizing its milk products properly, but it had been likely contaminated after this process.
"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.
---
On the Net:
Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports
Related Articles
- Dauphin County Raw Milk Dairy Tests Negative for Listeria; Raw Milk Sales Resumed
- Contaminated Milk Sours China's Dairy Business
- Chinese Official Quits Amid Milk Scandal
- CDC Official Heading to Iraq
- Dairy Crest to Sell Cheese Operations to First Milk
- Mumps outbreak concerns health officials
- Norovirus Outbreak Has Health Officials on Alert
- NFU Unhappy at Dairy Crest for Reducing Price Paid for Liquid Milk
- Meningococcal Outbreak Not Likely, Officials Say
- Dairy Fresh Farms Announces Results of ``New Generation Milk'' Test Market Launch in Western Canada
 |
 |
User Comments (0)
RSS Feeds