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(CIDRAP News) – Contaminated alfalfa sprouts were the probable cause of at least six recent cases of Salmonella infection in Oregon, according to the Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS).

Harmony Farms, an Auburn, Wash., firm, has recalled alfalfa and onion sprouts from retail stores and restaurants throughout Oregon, Washington, and Alaska, the department announced last week.

(CIDRAP News) – The death toll in the Ebola hemorrhagic fever outbreak in the Congo has increased to 18, with a total of 36 cases, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported yesterday.

The outbreak involves two villages in the Mbomo district of the Cuvette Ouest Department. The villages are in the northwestern Congo, about 440 miles northwest of Brazzaville, the capital, according to a Reuters report.

(CIDRAP News) – A contaminated multipurpose building apparently was the source of Escherichia coli O157 exposure for at least 19 people who got sick after attending a county fair in Ohio in 2001, according to a study published this week.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) says the rate of Salmonella contamination in raw meat and poultry samples it has tested so far this year is down 16% from last year and 66% lower than the rate 6 years ago.

(CIDRAP News) – With a Dec 12 deadline approaching, fewer than 20% of food establishments that must register with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under new regulations for protecting the US food supply have done so, FDA officials said yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) last week announced a comprehensive research agenda for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of its food safety programs.

The "unified food safety research agenda" ranges from studying the virulence of major foodborne pathogens to developing effective food-safety training strategies, the department said.

(CIDRAP News) – An outbreak of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in the Congo expanded to 24 cases last week, with 12 deaths, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The WHO reported Nov 17 that the Congo government had confirmed that the disease was Ebola, with 11 cases, all fatal, at that point. On Nov 21 the WHO reported another 13 cases, including one death.

(CIDRAP News) – An analysis of hepatitis A cases associated with a Chi Chi's restaurant near Pittsburgh points to green onions (scallions) from Mexico as the source of the virus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced today.

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said today that green onions (scallions) from three Mexican firms have been implicated in hepatitis A outbreaks that occurred in September, but the source of the current outbreak in the Pittsburgh area has not yet been identified.

(CIDRAP News) – Because someone who recently mailed a container of ricin remains at large, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is urging health workers to be alert for possible cases of ricin poisoning.

(CIDRAP News) – A combination of vaccines that included smallpox and anthrax might have contributed to the death of a young Army reservist last April, the Department of Defense (DoD) announced today.

(CIDRAP News) – The National Institutes of Health (NIH) today announced the start of the first human trial of a vaccine for Ebola virus infection, a currently untreatable disease that kills most of its victims.

(CIDRAP News) – Leaders of the US beef industry last week released sets of recommended "best practices" for eliminating Escherichia coli O157:H7 contamination at slaughter plants and in grinding operations.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) today released a 15-page set of guidelines for the public on food safety and security.

Titled "Food Safety and Food Security: What Consumers Need to Know," the booklet covers topics ranging from safe cooking temperatures and product recalls to spotting and reporting possible food tampering.

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Drug Administration has advised the public to consider avoiding raw or lightly cooked green onions (scallions) in the light of evidence linking them to recent hepatitis A outbreaks.

(CIDRAP News) – Scientists funded by the US Department of Energy (DOE) created a functioning copy of a virus in the record-breaking time of 2 weeks, DOE officials announced yesterday.

The virus is a phage—a type that infects bacteria—and is harmless to humans, officials said. It was created as part of a research program to develop microbes that can help solve energy and environmental problems.

(CIDRAP News) – A study from the Netherlands confirms that food-handling practices play an important role in the spread of noroviruses (Norwalk viruses), which have been blamed for many outbreaks of intestinal illness on cruise ships and in institutions in recent years.

(CIDRAP News) – Recent figures from the US Department of Defense (DoD) indicate a higher rate of myopericarditis (heart inflammation) cases among military personnel following smallpox vaccination than previously reported, though the complication remains relatively rare.

(CIDRAP News) – The federal government has moved to allow individuals and groups to continue working with certain hazardous biological agents beyond the Nov 12 deadline for complying with new registration rules while the government completes background checks on those groups.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Postal Service (USPS) reopened post offices in the Washington, DC, area last week after further tests dismissed a preliminary finding of anthrax at a Navy mail-handling facility in Washington.