Tag Archives: Utah

Experimentating with pruno leads to 8 cases of botulism in Utah

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The first case of food-related botulism recorded in the medical literature occurred in Germany in 1735 and was traced to uncooked fermented blood sausage. Food safety history guru (and pretty decent margarita recipe developer) Carl Custer pointed out in an IAFP workshop that botulism concerns (and regulatory responses) go back further than that. prunosweatshirtIn the 10th century, Emperor Leo VI of Byzantium prohibited the manufacture of blood sausage because of repeated illnesses leaving folks paralyzed and dying not too long after exposure. Botulism (derived from botulus, the latin word for sausage) is a pretty nasty old-world illness. Clostridium botulinum spores are fairly common in soil and can germinate and outgrow into vegetative cells in anaerobic, low acid conditions. A byproduct of the cells’ multiplication is the toxin.

Mrs. Kalisz, my family studies teacher warned of the dangers of botulism by showing a bulging can of beans. She didn’t mention anything about partially-fermented sausages, under processed home-canned food, packaged seafood, foil-wrapped baked potatoes – or a homemade prison alcohol called pruno.

To make pruno, a sugar source (like fruit acquired from a prison lunch) is put into in a bottle or bag, the naturally occurring yeast should convert the carbs into alcohol – creating some low-cost wine. If the sugar source is acidic fruit the low pH will suppress the germination of C. bot spores. If a potato (also full of carbs) is added by the amateur microbiologist it can raise the pH enough to allow for outgrowth. According to a paper published by Williams and colleagues in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, this is likely what happened in a 2011 botulism outbreak traced to a Utah prison.

Twelve prisoners consumed pruno, a homemade alcoholic beverage made from a mixture of ingredients in prison environments. Four drank pruno made without potato and did not Screen Shot 2013-12-14 at 4.07.42 PMdevelop botulism. Eight drank pruno made with potato, became symptomatic, and were hospitalized. The prune recipe involved in this outbreak (see right) was provided by patient 4, who reportedly had cooked this recipe approximately 20 times previously without a potato. The prisoner’s rationale behind using a potato was that he thought it would “accelerate fermentation,” and he was “experimenting.”

Pruno or prison wine: old potato led to botulism outbreak in Utah prison

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Who hasn’t tried to make hooch from old produce while in prison.

I have.

It’s so boring in jail people will try anything, usually experimenting with creative ways to bring in drugs, and becoming better criminals upon prunorelease.

I had a basic understanding of microbiology and fermentations.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that the inmate who cooked up some botulism-tainted jailhouse wine at the Utah State Prison in 2011 had brewed homemade alcohol before. But he made one — nearly fatal — mistake in October 2011.

He used a potato.

Pruno, or “prison wine” is an alcoholic liquid made from apples, oranges, fruit cocktail, ketchup, sugar, milk, and possibly other ingredients, including crumbled bread to ferment the beverage.

According to a study about the botulism outbreak published this week in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, the inmate’s experimentation in putting an old potato among other ingredients in the plastic bag hidden in his cell led to the sickening of 12 inmates at the prison. The potato allowed botulism to develop, according to the article.

The 2011 incident was highlighted in the peer-reviewed journal for the American College of Emergency Physicians in an article entitled, “Emergency Department Identification and Critical Care Management of a Utah Prison Botulism Outbreak.”

In the Utah case, researchers said eight of the 12 inmates who were sickened by the bad brew were diagnosed with “acute botulism poisoning.” This incident is one of the largest foodborne botulism outbreaks since 2006, according to researchers.

The inmate who made the so-called “pruno” told medical officials that he had made the brew — which contained a two-week old baked potato, powdered juice mix and several types of fresh and canned fruit — about 20 times before. But this was the first time he had added a potato, thinking it would “accelerate fermentation.”

It’s not OK to swim with diarrhea; safe swimming in Utah after cryptosporidiosis outbreak, 2008–2009, 5,700 sickened

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It matters what’s done after people barf. Same if people have diarrhea – in a pool.

During the summer of 2007, almost 6,000 people in Utah started barfing from Cryptosporidium, transmitted via the barfblog fav, fecal-oral route

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports that of 1,506 interviewed patients with laboratory-confirmed cryptosporidiosis, 1,209 (80%) reported swimming in at least one of approximately 450 recreational water venues during their potential 14-day incubation period.

Cryptosporidium is extremely chlorine-tolerant, and secondary or supplemental disinfection with ultraviolet light or ozone can control but not prevent outbreaks. Because swimmers are the primary source of Cryptosporidium contamination, healthy swimming campaigns are needed to increase awareness and practice of healthy swimming behaviors, especially not swimming while ill with diarrhea (i.e., swimming while ill with diarrhea can lead to gross contamination of recreational water). Before the 2008 summer swimming season, Utah public health agencies launched a multimedia healthy swimming campaign. To assess knowledge of healthy swimming, a survey of Utah residents was conducted during July–September 2008. The results of that survey found that 96.1% of respondents correctly indicated that "it is not OK to swim if you have diarrhea."

In a separate national survey in 2009, 100% of Utah residents but only 78.4% of residents of other states correctly indicated that "not swimming while ill with diarrhea protects others from recreational water illnesses (RWIs)." No recreational water–associated outbreaks were detected in Utah during 2008–2011. The healthy swimming campaign, as part of a multipronged prevention effort, might have helped prevent recreational water–associated outbreaks of cryptosporidiosis in Utah.

Before the 2008 summer swimming season, Utah’s state and local public health agencies teamed with community partners to control recreational water–associated transmission of Cryptosporidium. For example, the Salt Lake Valley Health Department (SLVHD) collaborated with pool operators to establish fecal incident–response protocols and install secondary or supplement disinfection systems to inactivate Cryptosporidium at 75 treated recreational water venues.

SLVHD also collaborated with the Utah Department of Health and diagnostic laboratories to expedite reporting of cryptosporidiosis cases to public health authorities. To engage the public in prevention, SLVHD led efforts to disseminate healthy swimming messages via a website, two television advertisements, public service radio announcements, and posters at pools (e.g., "A Swimming Pool is Like a Community Bathtub"). In addition, targeted messages were disseminated to schools, competitive water sports teams, and licensed childcare facilities. SLVHD also conducted a press conference during Recreational Water Illness and Injury Prevention Week, which is held each year the week before the Memorial Day holiday.

The complete report is available at http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6119a5.htm?s_cid=mm6119a5_x.
 

Mr. (bathtub) Cheese sickens hundreds with salmonella in Utah

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 Food hucksters sell nostalgia. See Michael Pollan on The Colbert Report for a fine example (video only works in the U.S.).

Biking home with Sorenne yesterday from school, a 20-something was walking a Brisbane sidewalk with pallets of strawberries and yelled out, “Want to buy some strawberries?”

“No.”

He then sold a pallet to the owner of a shoe store.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that some 2,100 Utahns – people who live in Utah, I guess — have been sickened with salmonella from homemade queso fresco.

The Salt Lake Valley Health Department has tracked down one source of the outbreak — an unnamed man dubbed "Mr. Cheese" who was making the product with raw milk and selling it to a Salt Lake City restaurant/deli.

The health department has confirmed that 73 people were sickened with the illness that causes diarrhea, fever and abdominal pain. But they estimate that hundreds more were ill and never reported it to the health department.

"They should not be purchasing food products in shopping center parking lots, [from people] distributing it out of their trunks or door to door," said Royal DeLegge, director of environmental health at the health department. "When you go into a retail setting, a deli or a store, you’re looking for labeling on the products."

The cheese probe took three years, involved a criminal investigator and extended to a fast-food franchise where Mr. Cheese’s wife worked.

People began to get sick in 2009 with Salmonella Newport, and the health department warned people not to buy the Mexican-style soft cheese from unapproved sources. Another 22 Newport cases popped up in 2010. The health department couldn’t find a common cause but heard of a woman selling cheese in a parking lot.

By June this year, another 32 people were sick with the strain. They commonly identified four restaurants and a market, where the local and state health department took samples of their queso fresco and samples from preparation areas. It found a positive DNA match from the cheese in the restaurant/deli.

That’s when the police got involved.

The Utah Department of Agriculture and Food had a name of a potential manufacturer of the cheese, who had a criminal past.

A criminal investigator for the county’s District Attorney’s Office put together a photo lineup for the restaurant owner, who identified his queso fresco source and called him "Mr. Cheese."

The health department later learned the man — whom they aren’t naming — made the cheese in his home using raw milk from a Midway dairy that is not authorized to sell raw milk. The man also is not licensed to manufacture cheese.
Food manufacturers are not allowed to produce products in their home because of the risk of contamination from sources such as pets and children.

Mr. Cheese’s wife may have contaminated her workplace with the queso fresco. Four customers and a food handler at four locations of a fast-food chain were sickened this year.

Utah man accused of eating live baby rat, posting video online charged with animal cruelty

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From the deeply weird files, Associated Press reports a Utah man faces an animal cruelty charge after a Facebook video surfaced showing him eating what appeared to be a live baby rat.

Thirty-one-year-old Andy Ray Harris of Tooele was charged with the misdemeanor in April after authorities viewed the video.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals reported it to police.

The video shows a man putting what appears to be a tiny, hairless rat in his mouth, chewing it up and swallowing it.

Harris has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
 

Escherichia coli O157:H7 outbreak associated with rodeo attendance, Utah and Idaho, 2009

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Rodeos can be risky — and not just for riders.

As reported by researchers from Utah and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, in summer 2009, the Utah Department of Health investigated an outbreak of Shiga-toxigenic Escherichia coli (STEC) O157:H7 (O157) illness associated with attendance at multiple rodeos.

Patients were interviewed regarding exposures during the week before illness onset. A ground beef traceback investigation was performed. Ground beef samples from patient homes and a grocery store were tested for STEC O157. Rodeo managers were interviewed regarding food vendors present and cattle used at the rodeos. Environmental samples were collected from rodeo grounds. Two-enzyme pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and multiple-locus variable-number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA) were performed on isolates.

Fourteen patients with primary STEC O157 illness were reported in this outbreak. Isolates from all patients were indistinguishable by PFGE. Isolates from nine patients had identical MLVA patterns (main outbreak strain), and five had minor differences. Thirteen (93%) patients reported ground beef consumption during the week before illness onset. Results of the ground beef traceback investigation and ground beef sampling were negative. Of 12 primary patients asked specifically about rodeo attendance, all reported having attended a rodeo during the week before illness onset; four rodeos were mentioned. All four rodeos had used bulls from the same cattle supplier. An isolate of STEC O157 identified from a dirt sample collected from the bullpens of one of the attended rodeos was indistinguishable by PFGE and MLVA from the main outbreak strain.

Recommendations were provided to rodeo management to keep livestock and manure separate from rodeo attendees. This is the first reported STEC O157 outbreak associated with attendance at multiple rodeos. Public health officials should be aware of the potential for rodeo-associated STEC illness.

Foodborne Pathogens and Disease. doi:10.1089/fpd.2011.0884
William A. Lanier, Julia M. Hall, Rachel K. Herlihy, Robert T. Rolfs, Jennifer M. Wagner, Lori H. Smith, Eija K. Hyytia-Trees
http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/fpd.2011.0884
 

Toasted tastes better: Salt Lake City Quiznos on hepatitis A alert after sandwich maker tests positive

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People who ate a Quiznos at 30 East Broadway (300 South) in Salt Lake City on August 6 or 7 may have been exposed to Hepatitis A via an infected food worker and should receive an injection of immune globulin (IG) or hepatitis A vaccine as soon as possible.

Those individuals may receive a vaccination at
Salt Lake Valley Health Department (SLVHD) City Clinic,
621 South 200 East, on:

* August 19 until 5 p.m.
* August 20 from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
* August 21 from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.

People who ate at Quiznos at 30 East Broadway (300 South) in Salt Lake City between July 27 and August 5 may also have been exposed but would not benefit from immunizations because immunizations must be given within 14 days of exposure. These people should watch for signs of hepatitis A and contact their health care provider if they develop illness.
 

Utah: Campylobacter outbreak in Saratoga Springs probably caused by cross-connecting water lines

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I’m not familiar with the practice, but apparently when crews shut off the city’s irrigation lines in the fall in Saratoga Springs, Utah, some residents tap into culinary pipes, getting water for outdoor use.

Deseret News reports that the city imposed the fine for cross-connecting culinary and irrigation lines after a Campylobacter outbreak sickened dozens of residents earlier this summer. Cross-connecting can contaminate culinary water and may have caused the outbreak.

Mayor Mia Love said anyone caught cross-connecting with a previous warning will be fined $10,000, adding, "It certainly sends a message saying we’re very serious about keeping the water clean. We’re not taking it lightly."
 

With only 300 sick, campylobacter in water outbreak receding

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The Utah County Department of Health (that’s in the U.S.) reports the Campylobacter outbreak that left more than 300 people in Saratoga Springs ill and triggered a boil order appears to be receding.

Joy Holbrook, a nurse epidemiologist with the department, said,

"We’re thinking that the outbreak is decreasing out there. It has been several days since we’ve had any new cases from Saratoga Springs."

Health department officials still are looking for the source of the contamination, which is responsible for 21 confirmed cases of Campylobacter and more than 300 probable cases. Holbrook said the small trace of organisms required to cause sickness and infection can be difficult to detect.

15 now sick with Campylobacter from Utah water

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The Utah County Health Department, along with UDOH, UDEQ, and Saratoga Springs, reports 15 lab confirmed cases of campylobacter.

The City of Saratoga Springs is continuing to take water samples to test for coliform bacteria and continuing to add chlorine to the drinking water supply to ensure safety. Water samples are also being collected and tested from the secondary water (pressurized irrigation) system.