Food Poisoning Law Blog : Food Poisoning Lawyer & Attorney : PritzkerLaw : Food Safety, Outbreaks & Recalls

The Monroe County School District says the Abe Lincoln Elementary School building is not the source of a recent E. coli 0157 outbreak that has sickened three students at the school, according to a letter to parents on the district’s website.

“Abe Lincoln building is not the source of infection but once an infected person enters the building, it is necessary to raise awareness and help prevent the spread of infection. We do not know the source of infection at this time,” the letter says. The school has added extra cleaning routines and taught classes about good hygiene.

The letter instructs parents to watch their children for symptoms of a gastrointestinal illness, teach and practice good hand-washing, refrain from sending home-made treats to school and to keep sick students home. Healthy students should continue to attend.

"We've had a couple of phone calls where parents are concerned about sending their kids to school," Monroe schools superintendent Larry Brown, told WKOW news. "We don't have any reason to believe kids should not be in school."

Test results released Friday, October 14, confirm that the bacteria from one of the three cases from the Abe Lincoln school is a genetic match to the E. coli outbreak in Wisconsin that sickened eight other people and killed one child.

If you have legal questions regarding an illness associated with this outbreak, contact PritzkerOlsen, a national leader in food safety law, for a free consultation.

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A seven-year-old girl who had been sent home from a hospital four times, required an emergency blood transfusion by the time doctors correctly diagnosed that she was suffering from E. coli poisoning, according to a story in the Shields Gazette.

“I was made to feel like I was being a silly parent. I felt like they didn’t believe me,” said Sarah Coulson, the girls’s mother. “I’m angry and I can’t stop thinking about it. We could have put her to bed and she might not have woken up. It was only my husband making me take her to hospital that meant she got the treatment she needed.”

"Failure to diagnose an E. coli infection can lead to serious harm, including severe dehydration, hypertension, colitis and kidney failure," said food safety attorney Fred Pritzker. "That this young girl was sent home four times is unconscionable."

When the Coulsons first brought their daughter to the hospital in South Tyneside, England, they were sent home with a prescription of rehydration salts.  After their daughter became sicker, they returned and were again sent home. The next day they brought her back and doctors took samples performed and examination and sent her home again with a directive to drink more water. Later, a pediatrician performed another examination, and sent them home again, according to the story.

The Coulsons then decided to seek another opinion and brought their daughter to the Royal Victoria Infirmary where she was admitted immediately to the intensive care unit and spent two days receiving treatment, including a blood transfusion.

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Almost 90 percent of Americans make beef, chicken or turkey burgers, but most of us don’t know how to cook them correctly, according to a new survey commissioned by the American Meat Institute and conducted by Harris Interactive.

Most people rely on sight or cooking times to determine when their burgers are done. Only 19 percent of people who cook burgers use an instant read thermometer, the only way to determine if burgers are safely cooked, according to the survey. Of adults aged 18-34, even fewer use an instant read thermometer, only 13 percent.

Cooking beef to a temperature of 160 degrees F or poultry to a temperature of 165 degrees F is the only way to kill dangerous pathogens including E. coli and Salmonella which can cause serious illness.

Symptoms of E. coli poisoning include stomach cramping, vomiting and bloody diarrhea. In severe cases, a complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) can develop.

E coli contamination prompted McNees Meats and Wholesale LLC. of North Branch, Michigan to recall about 360 pounds of ground beef, JB Meats of Avondale, Ohio to recall more than 70,000 pounds of ground beef, this summer. And Cargill issued a 36 million pound recall of ground turkey after a Salmonella outbreak killed one person and sickened 110 others in 31 states.
 

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If performed early enough after the onset of illness, plasma exchange may be an effective treatment for symptoms of hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a rare but potentially fatal complication of E. coli infection, according to results from a small Danish study published in The Lancet.

E. coli-HUS, which affects young children more frequently than adults, is characterized by acute hemolytic anemia, abnormally low platelet count and renal insufficiency. Most cases are associated with enteritis resulting from a Shiga toxin that is released by certain strains of E coli.

Senior author Martin Tepel, MD, from the Department of Nephrology, Odense University Hospital, Denmark, and his group used plasmapheresis to treat four women and one man ranging in age from 44 to 77 years old. All of them had symptoms of HUS associated with E coli, including enteritis, bloody diarrhea acute hemolytic anemia, abnormally low platelet count, acute kidney injury, and progressive central nervous dysfunction.

All the patients contracted E coli 0104:H4 infections while visiting northern Germany last spring. The patients were treated daily with plasma exchange by centrifugation and substitution with fresh frozen plasma.

After treatment, median platelet counts increased, median lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) concentrations decreased and renal function and neurological status improved. Researchers also found an association between the time therapy was initiated and how quickly the treatment showed affect.

Five to eight days after they began treatment, all of the patients were discharged from hospital with normal neurological status. The authors of the study say these results show plasma exchange, if performed early enough after the onset of illness, could be an effective treatment for HUS in adults and merits further study

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E. coli attorney Fred Pritzker is alerting the public to an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in Oregon and Washington that may be associated with Sally Jackson cheese. The FDA was notified of this outbreak by State Department of Agriculture, the Washington Department of Health, and the Oregon Public Health Division.

E. coli Outbreak Prompts Recall of Sally Jackson Cheese

Sally Jackson Cheese of Oroville, Washington, recalled all cheese products, including cow, goat, and sheep, because they may be contaminated with Escherichia coli O157:H7 bacteria. E. coli O157:H7 causes a diarrheal illness, often with bloody stools. Although most healthy adults can recover completely within a week, some people can develop a form of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). HUS is most likely to occur in young children and the elderly, but our law firm has had HUS clients in their early twenties. The condition can lead to serious kidney damage, severe hypertension, stroke, seizures, heart failure, pancreatitis and death.

Sally Jackson brand cheeses made from raw cow, goat, and sheep milk were distributed nationwide to restaurants, distributors, and retail stores. The three types of cheese are all soft raw milk cheeses in various sized pieces. The products do not have labels or codes. The cow and sheep milk cheeses are wrapped in chestnut leaves, the goat cheese is wrapped in grape leaves and all are secured with twine. The cheeses may have an outer wrapping of waxed paper.

E. coli lawyers at  PritzkerOlsen, P.A., are monitoring this Sally Jackson cheese E. coli outbreak and have established a claims center for members of the public who have been harmed. For a free case consultation, call 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or complete our free consultation form. Our firm is one of the few in the country practicing extensively in the area of foodborne illness litigation and we have recovered millions of dollars for victims of food poisoning.

We currently represent E. coli HUS victims and have years of experience representing victims of food poisoning against large national retailers and food manufacturers.

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Media reports covering the latest CDC data on food poisoning have focused on a slight decline in the incidence of E. coli O157:H7 infections in 2009.

But the bottom line of the report is that no real progress has been made in six years in reducing dangerous pathogens in our food.

"The interventions begun in the late 1990s were successful in decreasing some of these foodborne diseases, but we haven’t seen much recent progress,” said Chris Braden, M.D., acting director of CDC’s Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases. “To make additional strides against these diseases and ultimately better protect the American people from foodborne illness, CDC, our federal and state partners, and the food industry will need to try new strategies."

Braden was commenting on annual CDC surveillance data released this week by FoodNet, a food poisoning detection and reporting system operated by CDC in collaboration from 10 state health departments, USDA and FDA. It tracks E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella, Listeria, Campylobacter, Shigellaand four other pathogens. 

For most of the infections, the rate was highest in children under the age of 4 years. People over 50 years old had the highest rates of hospitalizations and deaths from most foodborne illnesses, emphasizing the need for those over 50 to get diagnosed and get treatment quickly after becoming ill.

Among the four pathogens tracked in FoodNet that have national incidence goals, Salmonella is furthest from meeting the goal. According to CDC, there is slow progress in fighting Salmonella because it is spread through a wide variety of foods, and also through non foodborne routes. Salmonella can be spread by poultry, meat, eggs, produce and processed foods, as well as by contact with animals like baby chicks, small turtles, reptiles and frogs.

Shigella and E. coli O157:H7 were the two pathogens that experienced lower incidence rates in 2009 when compared to 2006-2008. The Healthy People goal for E. coli was a rate of less than 1 infection per 100,000 people.  The 2009 ratio was .57 per 100,000, down 25 percent. For Shigella, the incidence rate was down 27 percent to 3.99 per 100,000. 

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National food safety law firm Pritzker Olsen congratulates reporter Michael Moss and other members of The New York Times Staff for winning a 2010 Pulitzer Prize in journalism for relentless reporting on E. coli O157:H7 in hamburger and other food safety issues.

The Times entered the combined stories for a Pulitzer in investigative reporting, but the Pulitzer board deemed the work more fitting for top prize in the explanatory journalism category.

The crown jewel in Michael's assortment of stories was his lengthy Sunday cover story that traced the meatpacking lineage of a particular batch of ground beef.  When a hamburger from the batch reached the plate of young Minnesota dance instructor Stephanie Smith, it was contaminated with living microbes of E. coli O157:H7 that infected her to the point of paralyzing her.

One of the astonishing findings in the story was that slaughterhouses have unwritten agreements with grinding plants not to perform E. coli  tests on the beef they ship. Tests on the incoming meat -- primarily trimmings and cheap cuts -- are not required.

Instead, the government requires E. coli testing at the grinding plant on finished hamburger. But by then -- because each batch contains meat from multiple suppliers -- there is no way to identify where the pathogen originated. The trick spares slaughterhouses from costly recalls.

The final citation from the Pulitzer Board said the combination of stories is a "distinguished example of explanatory reporting that illuminates a significant and complex subject, demonstrating mastery of the subject, lucid writing and clear presentation.''

Click here to see the complete collection of award-winning food safety stories.

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 Health officials have warned residents of Delaware County, Indiana, that the county has had 8 cases of E. coli O157:H7 infection since July.   Health officials have been unable to identify the source or sources of the infections.  Interviews of those sickened has not led to a common food or restaurant.  According to The Star Press,  the Delaware County Fair is being considered a possible target for investigation.

Animals at county fairs have been the source of a number of E. coli outbreaks.  Cattle, sheep and goats can harboring E. coli O157:H7 in their intestines.  If a human consumes even a small amount of contaminated animal fecal matter (poop), the human can contract an E. coli O157:H7 infection and become sick.  E. coli symptoms can include stomach cramping, bloody diarrhea, vomiting, and can lead to a deadly form of kidney failure known as hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS).

When visiting a county fair or anyplace that has animals to pet, wash your hands after petting the animals.  Wash your hands again right before you eat.

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