The UK Health Protection Agency (HPA) is investigating an outbreak of a strain of Salmonella Newport infection among 30 people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland since the beginning of December 2011. Cases of illness caused by the same strain have been confirmed in Scotland, Ireland and Germany.

Traducido por Gonzalo Erdozain
Resumen del folleto informativo mas reciente:
- Brotes de Norovirus en aumento en Carolina del Norte
- Personas infectadas pueden diseminar grandes cantidades del virus a través del vomito y diarrea.
- El virus puede permanecer en superficies comunes de la cocina por hasta 6 semanas.

Carteret County is now reporting an outbreak of norovirus following a similar outbreak of the stomach bug in Pitt County last week.
The Carteret County Health Department is working with an un-named long term care facility that reported more than twenty patients are ill and several have been hospitalized over the last few days with symptoms of norovirus.

Las Vegas, NV -- Issues with food storage and signs of roaches lead to the closure of a valley restaurant. Contact 13's Tricia Kean has the details in our Dirty Dining report.

Over half of food processing and packaging firms on the Chinese mainland failed safety inspections in 2011 – a figure food quality control company AsiaInspection has called “alarming.”

According to AP, an outbreak of a Campylobacter bacterial infection due to consuming raw milk from a Edwin Shank’s Family Cow Farm in Pennsylvania is now linked to thirty-eight illnesses in four states, The farm has temporarily suspended sales. Four are sick in Maryland according to the Maryland Department of Health. One person is sick in New Jersey and two in West Virginia, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Thirty-one people are sick in Pennsylvania, many of them in Franklin County, where the farm is located.

Raw milk from an unopened bottle tested by Maryland Health officials was positive for Campylobacter linked to the thirty-eight ill.

Campylobacter is the second most common cause of bacterial foodborne illness in the United States after Salmonella. Active surveillance through FoodNet indicates that there are about 13 cases for each 100,000 persons in the population diagnosed yearly with C. jejuni infection (MMWR, 2009, April 10). In 2009, there were 6,033 reported cases of campylobacteriosis; however the CDC estimates that C. jejuni causes approximately 845,000 illnesses, 8,400 hospitalizations, and 76 deaths in the United States each year, according to a 2011 report.

For more on the risks of raw milk, see Real Raw Milk Facts Dot Com.

The South Dakota Department of Health is "investigating a suspect food borne outbreak linked to a Tuesday evening basketball game in Pierre between Pierre and Mitchell."   It appears that the number ill is roughly 50.  The pathogen has not been identified, but it is said to be a diarrheal illness of "short duration."  

The health department has described the steps it is taking to identify the source of the outbreak:

An electronic food borne Illness questionnaire is being distributed today in the Pierre high school and middle school for staff and students. The questionnaire is intended to get a clear picture of how many people are ill, how severe the illness is and how long it lasts, the incubation period and the potential food source.

Schools have been the location of prior foodborne illness outbreaks.   In 1998, 11 students and children suffered E. coli O157:H7 infections linked to a taco-meal at the Finley Elementary School in Eastern Washington.   One child developed HUS.   Marler Clark's attorney's won a verdict of $4.6 million on behalf of the injured children.

An outbreak of Salmonella in six countries that has sickened 50 and killed one has been linked to ready-to-eat sliced watermelon.  The watermelons were imported from brazil.  The outbreak began in December, 2011.

According to the Daily Mail online, "Seventy per cent of the victims are female and include a six-month-old baby and pensioners. The one British fatality was suffering from a number of other underlying health problems."

The UK's Health Protection agency has been investigating the outbreak, and has revealed the strain of Salmonella to be Salmonella Newport. 

The breakdown of the cases by country:  England (26), Germany (15), Republic of Ireland (5), Scotland (5), Wales (3), N. Ireland (1). 

Watermelon was associated with an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak at Sizzler restaurants in the U.S. in 2000.   In July of that year, an outbreak of 64 confirmed cases, and 551 probable cases were tied to watermelon that had been cross-contaminated with raw meat products.  Of those ill, four developed HUS and one died.