Salmonella Blog - Surveillance & analysis on salmonella news & outbreaks

Thurston County Health Officer Dr. Diana Yu has earned a reputation for being a nag about hand washing. Her reasons are simple. "The reality is that there are not that many diseases that we can't prevent by hand washing," she said.

Thurston County has had a hand-washing education program in place since 1992. The program was expanded when the Washington State University Cooperative Extention took over the program. "They've fancied it up quite a bit," Yu said. "They teach hand washing at health fairs and in classes. They have a traveling booth."

Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety expert for Center for Science in the Public Interest, wants another step -- mandatory use of gloves. "Gloves are something you can observe," she said. "Hand washing is something done behind closed doors."

DeWaal's organization and other consumer groups have tried to get the provision added to the FDA's food code, essentially a set of model rules states can choose to adopt or not.

The code does call for the use of gloves or tongs in food preparation at places such as nursing homes or schools that serve the young and old, two groups that run a higher risk of death from food-borne illnesses.

Nancy Donley, president of the advocacy group Safe Tables Our Priority, is critical of the slow-moving FDA process for getting states to adopt tougher regulations. She wants each state to require certification of food managers and mandatory training for employees on food safety.

Donley acknowledged that the cost of such mandates might force some small restaurants out of business. But to her, hand washing and other food safety practices are a matter of life and death.
 

Seattle lawfirm Marler Clark is currently litigating on behalf of victims of salmonella outbreaks at a Chili's restaurant in Vernon Hills, IL, and at a Golden Corral restaurant near Atlanta, GA.

Outbreaks of salmonella have been linked to eggs, poultry, fruits. vegetables, and unpasteurized juices. Infected food service workers who practiced improper handwashing techniques have spread salmonella to patrons at restaurants. All in all, salmonella is one of the most commonly spread foodborne pathogens.

Taiwanese doctors have identified a potentially fatal strain of salmonella bacteria that is resistant to two antibiotics widely used to treat serious infections, according to the HealthDay Reporter.

The appearance of the multi-resistant strain "is a serious threat to public health, and thus constant surveillance is warranted," physicians at the Chang Gung University College of Medicine said.

The salmonella isolated from a 58-year-old Taiwanese man is resistant to both Cipro and Rocephin.

"These are the two powerful modern antibiotics that are used to treat serious cases of salmonella," said Becky Goldburg, a senior scientist at Environmental Defense, a New York-based group that has crusaded against the use of certain antibiotics in animal feed due to concerns about drug-resistant germs. "When the infection is resistant to them, it is untreatable."

Because the finding is just one instance of reported multiple resistance, "it is hard to know how common it might be," Goldburg said. But the fact that Cipro-resistant salmonella quickly became common in Taiwan is not a good sign.
 

Health officials are looking into a salmonella outbreak that has infected at least eight people, but they feel has ended. Test results are pending in a possible case from Walworth County.

The victims' ages range from 17 to 54.

Officials say none of the victims became seriously ill, but one required hospitalization.

Mark Wegner, chief of communicable diseases for the state Department of Health and Family Services, says the strain involved is known as salmonella java. It's typically associated with meat sources.