Oklahoma E. coli victim dies of complications – 8 years later

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A 24-year-old Owasso, Oklahoma man has died of complications from an E. coli infection he contracted in 2002. Richard Chatfield (right, photo from News On 6, in 2008) died of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, according to a family friend, who said it was related to a kidney transplant he underwent in 2009.

Chatfield spoke with the News On 6 in 2008 for a story about the lingering effects of E.coli. Six years after his diagnosis, he was on dialysis and had been told that without a kidney transplant he would die.

Chatfield became ill after a summer camp, but never knew the source of the infection. Chatfield was a graduate of Tulsa Community College and an Eagle Scout. He worked at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

Services will be held November 13, 2010 at Faith Lutheran Church in Owasso.
 

Martha Stewart gives turkeys booze before slaughter

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Cookbook author and domestic mogul Martha Stewart told Stephen Cobert (see below) she gave live turkeys miniature bottles of alcohol before killing them with her bare hands.

"I give them, you know those little cognac and bourbon bottles that you get on airplanes? Well before the bird is slaughtered you [give them] that. You just pour it down."

Stewart plans to kill six turkeys for her own Thanksgiving dinner this month.
 

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Dirty jobs? Try being a veterinarian

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Patty Khuly writes in today’s USA Today that while the Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs features revolting trades, no profession rivals the average veterinarian’s for the variety of revolting, fetid, infectious crap we have to deal with on a daily basis.

Though some have got it bad (consider the hands-on shelter worker or the bovine reproductive specialist) and some manage better than most (the radiologist, perhaps?), we all get treated to a fair bit of repulsive fare whether we like it or not.

As a mixed animal veterinarian in suburbia (dogs, cats, chickens and goats), my work is routinely disgusting. Picking through feces and vomit, for example, figures routinely in my daily

Below are the top 10 most digusting things we veterinarians and veterinary technicians must subject ourselves to.

1. Maggot picking.
This is the worst, so I’ll mention it first just to get it out of the way. In my opinion, wounds infected with maggots rival anything else I have to deal with. It’ll surely put you off rice for at least a month. (If you can stomach this, one the nine that follow are fairly easygoing.)

2. Bovine/equine reproductive examination.
Ahhh … the full-arm rectal of vet school lore. We all have to do it, but I never really minded it. It’s better than standing bare-armed in a three-sided barn when the 10-degree wind blows … though it does take some getting used to.

3. Fecal material sampling.
How many times a day do I stick something up a pet’s bum and then gently prise the stuff onto slides and into plastic containers? Ten? Twenty? Who knows, but it’s gross.

4. Dentistry for severe periodontal disease.
Never underestimate the force with which the foulness of an oral cavity can hit you — across three masks, even. If you need further inducement to consider this the revolting job that it is, factor in the pus, blood and spray of bacterial filth contaminating the air around you. Hence, goggles are a must lest you risk suddenly contracting a novel strain of especially aggressive pink eye.

There’s more. I sent the story to a veterinarian colleague, who said her personal favorite was looking through dog vomit for all the stuff the dog ate. … did he puke up all the pieces of the tennis ball (and puzzling the slimy pieces back together to find out) or is there still some in there?

She also said she loves her job.

Turtle meat kills six in Micronesia

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AFP reports that six people died and more than 90 fell ill after eating endangered turtles in the Federated States of Micronesia.

The deaths, which included four children, occurred after a feast on the island of Murilo in mid-October where the rare hawksbill turtle was consumed, the Federated States of Micronesia’s public information office said.

It said government health officials and the World Health Organisation found the deaths were a result of chelonitoxism, a type of poisoning caused by biotoxins in turtle flesh for which there is no known antidote.
 

Salmonella in France: 500 sick from beef patties

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A report released Wednesday by the Prefecture of Vienne in France concluded that 500 people, mostly middle school and high school students in Poitiers, were poisoned to varying degrees between October 19 and 22, 2010, after eating hamburgers containing salmonella.

Most are young people from three middle schools and one high school in Poitiers and about 20 people had to be hospitalized.

At Saint-Cyr (Haute-Vienne), twelve cases (seven from Annecy) were identified at a holiday resort, and a dozen were identified in a nursing home for the elderly.

The investigation lead by the Departmental Direction of Population Protection identified the offending food as a batch of frozen beef patties produced by an Italian company.

Thanks to my friend in France, Albert Amgar, for forwarding the latest story from AFP, and my best friend, Amy Hubbell, for the translation.
 

E. coli outbreak hospitalizes three children in Norway

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Three small children from Oslo, Akershus and Østfold are in hospital with a serious kidney disease following an E. coli infection.

Oslo University Hospital (Oslo Universitetssykehus) authorities confirm two have developed the potentially fatal Haemolytic-uremic syndrome (H.U.S.), which can also give acute kidney failure and change blood chemistry.

The Institute of Public Health (Folkehelseinstituttet/FHI) says the third child, admitted to Ullevål Hospital, has also developed H.U.S. Medical staff at both hospitals are refusing to give details about their conditions.

The Foreigner reports that no further details were available at this time.
 

33 sick in multistate outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 infections associated with cheese

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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has issued an alert to consumers and health professionals about an outbreak of E.coli O157:H7 in five states: Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada. Based on current information, there is a link with the consumption of one of several cheeses offered for sampling and sale at the “cheese road show” that was held at Costco Warehouses in these states. This cheese—Bravo Farms Dutch Style Gouda Cheese (Costco Item 40654) manufactured by Bravo Farms, Traver CA—was sold and offered as free samples for in-store tasting from October 5 to November 1.

Consumers who have any of this cheese should not eat it. Instead, they should return the cheese to the place of purchase or dispose of it in a closed plastic bag placed in a sealed trash can. This will prevent people or animals, including wild animals, from eating it.

Thirty-three persons infected with the outbreak strain of E. coli O157:H7 have been reported from five states since mid-October. The number of ill persons identified in each state with this strain is as follows: AZ (15), CA (3), CO (10), NM (3) and NV (2). There have been 15 reported hospitalizations, 1 case of hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), and no deaths.

This is a rare strain of E. coli O157:H7 that has never been seen before in the PulseNet database. PulseNet is 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.

Church turkey dinner sickens 22 in Kansas

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The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) and City-Cowley County Health Department, with assistance from the Kansas Department of Agriculture and the cooperation of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Arkansas City, are conducting an investigation of a possible foodborne illness outbreak associated with the Sacred Heart Turkey Dinner that was held on the evening of November 8.

Since November 8, at least 22 individuals have reported becoming ill; symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain and cramping. Follow-up investigations are ongoing, but preliminary information suggests that the illnesses among these individuals are associated with attendance at or consumption of food from the turkey dinner. No other common links have yet been identified.

At this time, no specific foods have been identified as the potential source of illnesses. As a precaution, KDHE is recommending that no food that was prepared for this dinner is consumed. Any food left over from the event should be discarded to reduce the potential of further illness.

To aid in the investigation and potentially identify the source of the outbreak, KDHE is conducting an online survey that can be accessed at:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SacredHeartDinner

Mixed messages from China on food safety

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China’s government vowed on Tuesday to make more information available to the public regarding food safety, while sentencing a consumer activist who tried to make more information public about the melamine scandal to 2.5 years in jail.

The whole mess sounds overtly Orwellian.

Deng Haihua, spokesman for the Ministry of Truth Health, the main government agency in charge of overseeing food safety, said the new regulations define exactly what information should be publicized and under which government departments.

Zhang Jian, a food safety researcher with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said,

"Only in that way can consumers get credible and scientific guidance."

Michael Taylor, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Deputy Commissioner for Foods, told reporters in Shanghai today that China’s implementation of food safety standards is the country’s biggest hindrance in exporting high quality, trusted food products overseas,

"An important development is the new food safety law that was passed here in 2009 with a very high-level food safety committee. It just shows a forthright approach to making food safety an important priority, to creating more transparency in the food safety system."

Incarcerating people who set up web sites to help consumers doesn’t help.
 

China food safety activist gets 2.5 years

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In 2008, six children died and nearly 300,000 were sickened by baby formula tainted with melamine. The industrial chemical, used in the manufacture of plastics and fertilizer, was added to watered-down milk to increase profits and fool inspectors testing for protein. Several dairy industry figures were prosecuted and punished, including three people given the death penalty.

Zhao Lianhai (right, exactly as shown) pushed for greater official accountability and compensation for victims and their families after the 2008 scandal that had Chinese officials repeatedly saying they’d do better at food safety basics. He organized a website to collect information about the poisonings, and was taken away by police in November 2009.

Wire services are reporting that Lianhai has now been sentenced to 2.5 years in prison after being found guilty of inciting social disorder.

Lawyer Li Fangping said,

"The crimes he was accused of were nothing more than what regular citizens would do to defend their rights."

Li said prosecutors leveled three charges against Zhao: That he organized a gathering of a dozen parents of sick children at a restaurant, held a paper sign in front of a court and factory involved in the scandal as a protest, and gave media interviews in a public place.