Campylobacter Blog - Surveillance & analysis on Campylobacter news & outbreaks

Thursday, 27 July 2006, 2:54 pm
Press Release: Green Party
27 July 2006

The Green Party is alarmed that the Government will not take any decisive action in the foreseeable future to reduce the epidemic of campylobacter infections in New Zealand while it waits for yet more advice.

In the House today the Minister of Food Safety, in response to questioning by Greens' Food Safety Spokesperson Sue Kedgley, said they would not act until further research was conducted.

By DAN RAHN University of Georgia

You pack your child's lunch for school early in the morning, but she doesn't eat it until lunchtime. Is it still safe then? Foodborne illnesses can be serious, even deadly, for young children especially. But lunch doesn't have to be risky.

"It's not hard to keep packed lunches safe," said Connie Crawley, a Cooperative Extension nutrition and health specialist with the University of Georgia College of Family and Consumer Sciences. "But it takes some thought and preparation."

In a packed school lunch, Crawley said, food safety depends on what you pack and how you pack it.

Choosing the food is a big step. Many of your child's favorites are perfectly safe at room temperature.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

By NANCY LUNA
The Orange County Register

A San Clemente woman left with permanent nerve damage after eating an Ahi tuna appetizer at Salt Creek Grille was awarded $3.2 million by an Orange County jury.

The Dana Point eatery plans to appeal the July 11 verdict for Alexis Sarti, 22. She sued the 10-year-old Craftsman-style eatery after a near fatal incident stemming from "cross contamination" of her raw fish with campylobacter jejuni, bacteria found in raw poultry.

The bacteria attacked her nervous system, causing temporary double vision and paralysis from head to toe after the April, 2005 incident, according to the lawsuit she filed last year.

A jury ordered Salt Creek to pay her $3.2 million in damages, considered one of the largest punitive fines levied against a California restaurant in a case involving this specific bacteria, said Sarti's Newport Beach attorneys Keith Bremer and Tyler Offenhauser.

In a statement released today, Salt Creek's president and co-founder Tim McCune said he is confident that the verdict would be overturned on appeal "and our company and staff will be vindicated."

"Salt Creek Grille has been in business for 10 years," McCune stated. "During that time and in our three locations, we have served well over two million guests. Our number one priority has been, and will always be, the safety and well being of our guests."

As a result of the incident, Sarti, a cross-country runner, said she has 40 percent nerve damage in her body and can't walk long distances. She often uses a wheelchair, she said. "I still can't walk up and down stairs and I can't run," Sarti said today.

CONTACT US: nluna@ocregister.com

11.jul.06
Helena IR
Laura Behenna

We've all heard news reports in recent years of people sickened or even dying from consuming food contaminated with E. coli or Salmonella bacteria.

So I was astonished recently to learn that bacteria called campylobacter cause many more cases of food-borne illness than either E. coli or Salmonella.

"Campylobacter is the leading cause of gastrointestinal illness in the United States, yet nobody's heard of it," Laura Hendley, a sanitarian with the Lewis & Clark City-County Health Department, informed me last week.

"Especially in this county," her colleague Laurel Riek said. Riek added that between July 1, 2004 and June 30, 2005, Lewis & Clark County recorded 18 cases of campylobacter infection, compared with only six cases of illness from Salmonella.

03 Jul 2006

Health and food safety experts say they are at a loss to explain a big rise in the number of cases of the food poisoning bug, campylobacter.

More commonly found in rural parts of the country, campylobacter now seems to be affecting larger numbers of city residents.

Donald Campbell, the principal public health advisor with the Food Safety Authority, says cases have jumped from an average 200 a week to 250 in recent months for no obvious reason.

Scientists, food safety experts and health professionals are using computer modelling to find ways to stop the number of cases increasing.