CDC Warning: Do Not Consume Raw Milk
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a new food safety warning against consumption of raw milk and any products made from it.
The CDC's latest Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report reviewed an October 2007 outbreak of illness caused by Campylobacter jejuni to illustrate that unpasteurized milk and cheese and other products made from it carry the risk of infection from milkborne pathogens.
"To minimize the risk for illness associated with milkborne pathogens, unpasteurized milk and milk products should not be consumed, especially among populations at high risk of infection complications (the young, pregnant, elderly and immunocompromised),'' the CDC report said.
According to the CDC, an epidemiological investigation by health officials found an association between illness in 67 fair-goers in rural Kansas and consumption of cheese made at the fair from unpasteurized milk. Even though samples of the cheese tested negative for Campylobacter jejuni, isolates of the bacteria from two of the ill persons were proven to have the same genetic fingerprint, the CDC said.
The outbreak arose Oct. 26, 2007, when the Kansas Department of Health and Environment received a confirmed report of two ill persons who came from different families in the same closed community in rural Kansas.
Over the next three days, another 17 members of the community reported stomach illnesses. The CDC said everyone involved reported eating fresh cheese made from raw milk on Oct. 20 at the same community fair.
Of 101 people who ate the cheese, 67 became ill, the CDC said. Campylobacter symptoms usually start two to five days after infection and the illness usually lasts a week to 10 days. The first symptoms are muscle pain, headache and fever followed by diarrhea, stomach pain and nausea.
