Dawn M. Kurry

Richmond County Daily Journal

Periodically we hear about food recalls and illnesses being linked to foods we generally trust.

According to Family and Consumer Science Agent Sarah Mammarella of the Richmond County Cooperative Extension, the more we know about the illnesses that affect us, the more we can do to prevent them and keep ourselves healthy.

As many as 24 individuals across the state are either confirmed or suspected to be part of an outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 centered in Wake County. Health officials have said the only common link discovered so far is a visit to the State Fair — which ran from Oct. 13-23 — almost all the victims are children.

E. coli O157:H7 produces a toxin that attacks cells and creates an immune response creating blood clots.

“Those clots often reside in the kidneys, shutting them down, or the eyes, causing blindness,” explained Mammarella. “Scary stuff that can have life-long effects.”

Hepatitis A, Salmonella and Listeria are other common threats to our food.

“A food-handler-with-Hepatitis-A situation pops up every couple of months,” said Mammarella. “Often there aren’t ill patrons, but the story goes like this: A food handler or server is diagnosed with Hep A; the local or state health department investigates and estimates that thousands of patrons have been potentially exposed — poop is left on a food handler’s hands, that equals lots of folks getting sick — big lineups at a clinic for patrons to get a shot, either vaccine or IGG, because the treatment can drastically reduce the likelihood of illness; bad press for the business and a drop in sales.”

This type of situation has happened in the past month at Chedder’s in Lubbock, Texas, and last July at Olive Garden in Fayetteville, N.C., according to Mammarella.

There are other troubling scenarios.

The CDC is collaborating with public health and agriculture officials in New York and other states and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to investigate a multistate outbreak of Salmonella Enteritidis infections linked to Turkish pine nuts purchased from bulk bins at Wegmans grocery stores.

Representatives from Wegmans are cooperating with public health officials. Public health investigators are using DNA “fingerprints” of Salmonella bacteria obtained through diagnostic testing with pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, or PFGE, to identify cases of illness that may be part of this outbreak. They are using data from PulseNet, the national subtyping network made up of state and local public health laboratories and federal food regulatory laboratories that performs molecular surveillance of foodborne infections.

A total of 42 individuals infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Enteritidis have been reported from six states. There was one ill person identified in Arizona, one in Maryland, two in New Jersey, 26 in New York, eight in Pennsylvania and four in Virginia.

According to an Oct. 25 news release, the death toll in the listeria outbreak traced to cantaloupes produced at a Colorado farm reached 28, with another 133 people sickened in 26 states, said U.S. officials.

Officials said last week that the outbreak appeared to have been caused by unsanitary conditions at the farm.

Inspections on Sept. 22 and 23 by federal and state authorities at the Jensen Farms packing facility in Granada found “unsanitary conditions where the [fruit] may have become adulterated,” Sherri McGarry, senior adviser at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s CORE Network, said during a news conference last week.

“Seeing all of the recent food-borne illness outbreaks throughout the nation makes it very important for consumers to make sure to be safe,” said Mammarella. “First, consumers should always make sure to wash fresh fruits and vegetables-even if they are not eating the rind. Germs and contaminants lurk in the cracks and crevices of our food. We also need to be making sure that we wash our hands, diligently, after using the rest room and before and after handling food and before eating. Remember, we must wash our hands for 20 seconds, with soap and hot water — hand sanitizer is not a good replacement for washing hands.”

— Staff Writer Dawn M. Kurry can be reached at 910-997-3111, ext. 43, or by email at dkurry@heartlandpublications.com.