News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Questions abounded today concerning the large and growing outbreak of Escherichia coli infections concentrated in northern Germany, including where it came from, why it is striking mostly women, and why the number of reported hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) cases, at 276, is so unusually high.

(CIDRAP News) – Foodborne illness investigations in several states have prompted two product recalls, involving cantaloupe suspected as the cause of Salmonella infections and Lebanon bologna that may have ties to Escherichia coli O157:H7 illnesses.

In both outbreaks, epidemiological investigations by state and federal experts identified the suspected foods. So far the pathogens have not been detected in cantaloupe or bologna samples.

(CIDRAP News) – The emergence and wide spread of a new clone of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in food animals is a worrisome development that should be watched closely, one of the strain's lead researchers has warned in a medical journal.