Salmonella Lawyer & Attorney : Marler Clark : Salmonella Blog

Epidemiologists at the Alachua County Health Department are working to trace the source of an outbreak of salmonella enterocolitis that struck 23 people who had eaten at one Gainesville restaurant between Sept. 10 and 15.

Epidemiologist Jerne Shapiro said that nearly two dozen people felt sick after eating at The Swamp Restaurant the weekend of Sept. 10 or shortly thereafter. Most had ordered a salad.

She said that restaurant employees had been tested for salmonella, and the restaurant itself had been inspected twice since the outbreak was reported. No new cases have been reported for close to two weeks.

Shapiro said that all possible avenues of contamination were being examined, including the restaurant's outside suppliers, but as of Friday, no conclusions had been reached.
 

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Wheeling-based produce supplier Coronet Foods was cleared of any involvement in an outbreak of salmonella in the summer of 2004, but the local company has still been unable to find a new client.

The company announced Thursday it is ceasing operations.

The Wheeling-based produce supplier had been in business since 1965, but couldn't survive the loss of its biggest client. In a news release, Coronet CEO Ernie Pascua blamed a "sudden reduction in volume" because of an "alleged salmonella incident this past summer."

Sheetz convenience stores dropped its contract with Coronet after 300 customers got sick from salmonella. The company had been trying to find new clients, but the letter to employees says bad publicity made that next to impossible.
 

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Blaming adverse publicity from a salmonella outbreak this past summer that sickened more than 400 people, Coronet Foods said it was ceasing operations today at its plant in Wheeling, W.Va., leaving 220 workers without jobs.

The plant, which supplied bagged salads, vegetables and fruits to customers in about 20 states in New England, the Midwest and the mid-Atlantic region, informed its workers at the close of business yesterday.

Coronet distributed sliced Roma tomatoes used in sandwiches sold at Sheetz convenience stores. About 330 Pennsylvanians who ate the sandwiches got sick with salmonella, and the outbreak is believed to have sickened another 80 people in nearby states.

Coronet Foods, which has operated in Wheeling for nearly 40 years, was unable to find buyers or partners that would allow the business to continue.

Marler's Seattle-based firm has filed three lawsuits as a result of the outbreak, all targeting Coronet. He said the company's decision to go out of business would not affect the lawsuits.

"Coronet has enough insurance to resolve all the claims," he said. "We're hopeful we can eventually get through this, either by litigation or settlement."
 

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Salmonellosis is a disease caused by a bacteria called salmonella. The bacteria is found in feces of infected people, farm animals; e.g. chicken, turkey, pigs, cows, wild animals, and pets (dogs, cats, turtles, reptiles).

How does it spread?
It is usually spread through direct contact:

• from person to person if the hands of an infected person are not washed properly after using the toilet
• by drinking water or eating food contaminated with the bacteria
• by eating undercooked meat and meat products

Signs and symptoms of illness.
Diarrhea, cramps, nausea, sometimes vomiting, usually fever and headache. Many people have no symptoms at all.

Who is at risk?
Everyone - the young, old and debilitated have more severe symptoms which may last longer.

How long before illness starts?
Usually 12 to 36 hours but can take 6 to 72 hours after the bacteria is swallowed.

How long does illness last?
Several days to several weeks. Even after the symptoms have stopped, some people, especially infants, may still have the bacteria in their feces for months. There is usually no treatment. Treatment with antibiotics may prolong the time that the bacteria stays in the bowel.
 

Prevention:

• Thorough hand washing is the best prevention. Make sure that hands are properly washed after using the toilet, changing diapers, handling pets or before preparing foods.
• Clean and sanitize counter tops and utensils immediately after the preparation of foods, particularly meats and poultry.
• Drink only pasteurized milk.
• Drink water only from a safe water supply.
• Avoid using raw eggs in foods that do not require cooking; e.g. egg nog, caesar salad dressing. Use pasteurized liquid eggs instead.
• Defrost meats safely under running water, on a plate in the fridge, or in the microwave oven.
• Cook meat and poultry to minimum internal temperature of 165 degrees F.
• Keep hot foods hot (140 degrees F) before serving and cold foods cold (40 degrees F or colder).
• Avoid preparing or handling any food if ill with diarrhea.
   

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A significant health threat is being posed by an underground market in which as many as 125 tons of processing tomatoes from the central San Joaquin Valley daily are being diverted for sale as fresh tomatoes in Southern California and Mexico.

Most of the tomatoes are hastily picked and packed into used boxes in the fields, usually by crews who do not have access to portable toilets or any means of washing the fruit, according to the Fresno Bee.

Tomato industry leaders say the diversion of the tomatoes skirts numerous restrictions on inspection and leaves them vulnerable for blame in case of an outbreak of a food-borne illness.

There have been at least eight operations raided by agricultural inspectors in Fresno, San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties this year. Steve Lyle, a spokesman for the California Department of Food and Agriculture, said at least seven citations have been issued for alleged noncompliance with the department's standards on packing and shipping of tomatoes.

Growers and shippers of California's Roma tomatoes, a popular retail variety, are talking with representatives of the California Department of Food and Agriculture about forming a new marketing order to tighten standards on packing fresh tomatoes, make it easier to trace tomatoes back to the farm and increase surveillance to thwart the underground operations.
 

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Reiter's syndrome, which includes and is sometimes referred to as "reactive arthritis," is an uncommon, but debilitating, result of a salmonella infection.

Reiter's syndrome is a disorder that causes at least two of three seemingly unrelated symptoms: reactive arthritis, eye irritation, and urinary tract infection. The reactive arthritis associated with Reiter's develops when a person eats food that has been tainted with bacteria. Reactive arthritis is characterized by the inflammation of one or more joints, following an infection localized in another portion of the body, commonly the gastrointestinal tract.

The symptoms of Reiter's Syndrome usually occur between one and three weeks after the infection.
 

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Typically, nontyphoidal Salmonella produces a self-limiting febrile gastrointestinal illness that is indistinguishable from that caused by other bacterial enteric pathogens. Dehydration is the principal clinical concern. The incubation period between ingestion of salmonella bacteria and the onset of illness varies from 6 to 72 hours.

Symptoms of salmonella infection include diarrhea, abdominal cramps, fever, nausea, and/or vomiting. The diarrhea may be non-bloody, occur several times per day, and not be very voluminous, although in severe cases it may be frequent, bloody and/or mucoid, and of high volume. Fever generally occurs in the 38 degrees C to 39 degrees C range. Vomiting is less common than diarrhea. Headaches, muscle pain, and joint pain are often reported as well. Whereas the diarrhea typically lasts 24 to 72 hours, patients often report fatigue and other nonspecific symptoms lasting 7 days or longer.

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The US food safety agency plans to release two draft risk assessments in order to help manufacturers tackle the problem of salmonella in pasteurised shell eggs and egg products.

Developed by the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, the soon-to-be released documents aim to provide scientific information that the agency can use to develop 'pathogen reduction lethality performance standards' for pasteurised shell eggs and egg products.

The first risk assessment is a quantitative analysis of salmonella enteritidis in shell eggs and the second is a quantitative risk assessment of salmonella in pasteurised liquid egg products.

Estimated medical costs for foodborne salmonella infections were $118 million under both approaches, with two-thirds of these costs due to hospital care.

A public meeting on 22 October aims to provide a forum to discuss the technical design and assumptions that were used to create these draft risk assessments.
 

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County health officials visited Red Hill Pentecostal Free Will Baptist Church Wednesday night to find out more about the salmonella outbreak at the church homecoming Sunday. The congregation also heard about food-borne diseases and how to prevent them.

John Rouse, county health director, told the gathering the exact source of the outbreak would probably never be known and his staff emphasized they were not at the church to point the finger of blame.

Officials compiled a list of the food served at the event and interviewed church members individually to find out what they ate. Mr. Rouse said although that might help establish a link between those who had symptoms and specific dishes, it's unlikely the root of the outbreak will be identified.

"In any food-borne outbreak it is going to be impossible for me to come back to you and say this is the dish that caused the outbreak," he said.

Red Hill preacher Tony Kopanski feels church officials did everything they could to make sure the 150 people who attended the homecoming knew what had happened and about last night's meeting.
 

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Dateline NBC recently lit a fire in the kitchens of national family style restaurants with its report on dirty dining.

Dateline producers took their hidden cameras along as they dined at some of the nation's leading family chains, including Alabama. They found several clean and well-run restaurants. They also found some "dirty" unappetizing scenes.

In one Southeastern IHOP, a drain in the kitchen became clogged with grease. Many of the patrons had to share their "fresh and fruity" breakfast specials with unsightly tubes as restaurant managers had to deal with the major backflow of grease.

At TGI Fridays in New Orleans a customer saw a rodent run across the floor. Dateline obtained the health departments report, it revealed a health inspectors note that revealed the building had been rat infested for months.

Then there's the horrible incident at Chili's Restaurant in Vernon Hills, Illinois. June 2003, the diner operated an entire day with a broken water heater. For more than 10 hours there was no hot water for employees to clean their tables, wash the dishes or even wash their hands. 300 people became sick, nearly half were confirmed victims of salmonella poisoning.

 

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