NEWS SCAN: FDA cantaloupe inspections, more Campylobacter cases, polio-team killing, stable Legionnaires' bacterium

Feb 26, 2013

FDA beefs up cantaloupe packer inspections
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday sent a letter to the cantaloupe industry urging observance of best growing and packing practices in light of recent foodborne illness outbreaks and positive pathogen findings in fresh products. The letter, signed by Michael Landa, JD, who directs the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN), recognized the industry for taking actions to boost the safety of fresh cantaloupe, but said it is still especially concerned about its observations at packinghouses and their links to recent outbreaks. To address those issues, the FDA said that, during the 2013 growing season, it will initiate inspections with sampling at a subset of US cantaloupe packinghouses to assess practices and to flag any potentially unsafe conditions. The agency emphasized that it will continue to target imported cantaloupe at the border for sampling and may launch other surveillance and inspections activities, based on public health needs. Two major cantaloupe-related outbreaks, one involving Listeria monocytogenes and another linked to Salmonella, in 2011 and 2012 sickened more than 400 people and were linked to at least 36 deaths.
Feb 25 FDA letter to cantaloupe industry

Alaska Campylobacter outbreak tied to raw milk expands to 18 cases
A Campylobacter outbreak in Alaska linked to raw milk has grown to 18 cases, 14 more than when the problem was first reported on Feb 15, the Alaska health department's Section of Epidemiology (SOE) said in a Feb 22 update. Some of the patients have had recurrent bouts of illness, and two have been hospitalized, the statement said. All the cases have been linked to raw milk from a Kenai Peninsula farm that operates a cow-share program. Officials said the number of cases is expected to increase further as health officials contact people who might have received or drunk raw milk from the farm. The milk is distributed throughout the Kenai Peninsula and in Anchorage and Sitka.
Feb 22 Alaska SOE statement

Gunmen kill officer protecting polio vaccinators in Pakistan
Gunmen in Pakistan today shot and killed a policeman who was protecting polio vaccinators, in the latest of several attacks targeting polio workers in the country, according to the Associated Press (AP). No vaccinators were wounded in the attack in the Mardan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the story said. The attackers hid in a field near a narrow road before attacking as the polio workers walked by, Mardan Police Chief Inam Jan told the AP. He said no arrests had been made yet. No one had claimed responsibility for the attack, and it wasn't known whether the officer was attacked because he was protecting the polio team or for some other reason. A senior health official, Janbaz Afridi, said the polio vaccination campaign was continuing in various parts of the province today despite the killing. Mazhar Nisar, a senior official with the prime minister's polio monitoring team, said at least 11 members of polio teams have been killed in various parts of Pakistan since December. Some Pakistani militants see the vaccination campaigns as Western-backed plots to gain intelligence in sensitive areas.
Feb 26 AP story

Pittsburgh Legionella strain from '12 outbreak closely resembles 1982 strain
The strain of Legionnaires' disease bacteria that caused a recent outbreak in Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities in Pittsburgh is "almost identical" to the strain that caused an outbreak there 30 years ago, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported recently. Bacteria that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found in October when investigating a recent Legionnaires' outbreak matches in five of its seven genes with bacteria from a 1982 outbreak. "This indicates the Legionella found in the hospital in 1982 is almost identical to the Legionella found in this outbreak, suggesting that the pathogenic strain may have persisted in the hospital's water system for many years," the CDC said in a report last month. The recent Legionnaires' outbreak in VA clinics in the Oakland neighborhood and in O'Hara township sickened as many as 21 patients from January 2011 through October 2012, and 5, or possibly 6, died from the disease, the story said. CDC epidemiologist Lauri Hicks, DO, said the strain from the recent outbreak could be considered a "granddaughter or grandson" of the 1982 strain. The agency has not seen the strain elsewhere, she said.
Feb 23 Tribune-Review story
Feb 5 CDC congressional testimony on the outbreak

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