By using counterimmunoelectrophoresis (CIEP), Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin was successfully demonstrated in fecal samples collected within 1 day of attack from sick individuals involved in a bacteriologically and epidemiologically proven outbreak of C. perfringens food poisoning. In contrast, enterotoxin was not demonstrable in fecal samples of apparently healthy individuals both at high...

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) in collaboration with the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC), the Health Service Executive (HSE), the National Virus Reference Laboratory (NVRL) and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) is investigating a national foodborne outbreak of Hepatitis A virus (genotype IA). The strain of the virus in Ireland is the same as tha...

An outbreak of norovirus gastroenteritis affected passengers on two consecutive cruises of ship X and continued on 4 subsequent cruises despite a 1-week sanitization. We documented transmission by food and person-to-person contact; persistence of virus despite sanitization onboard, including introductions of new strains; and seeding of an outbreak on land.

During July and August, 1997, British Columbia (BC) experienced an outbreak of Vibrio parahaemolyticus (VP) gastroenteritis associated with consumption of raw and undercooked oysters. VP is a naturally occurring, halophilic bacterium which can be found in BC’s coastal waters and, at least during the summer months, in marine shellfish(1). This report presents the preliminary findings of the outb...

BACKGROUND Between November 2 and 10, 2002 several patients with psoriasis and personnel staying in the health centre in Gran Canaria, Spain fell ill with diarrhoea, vomiting or both. Patient original came from Norway, Sweden and Finland. The patient group was scheduled to stay until 8 November. A new group of patients were due to arrive from 7 November. METHODS A retrospective cohort study w...

The committee of inquiry into the outbreak of food poisoning at Stanley Royd Hospital identified serious deficiencies in the management of the outbreak and urged all health authorities to learn from the incident and prepare adequate plans for dealing with any future outbreaks. A survey of district health authorities in England showed that most authorities do not yet have a written plan or that ...

Listeriosis is characterized by bacteremia or meningitis. We searched for listeriosis case series and outbreak investigations published in English by 2013, and assessed the strength of evidence for foodborne acquisition among patients who ate hospital food. We identified 30 reports from 13 countries. Among the case series, the median proportion of cases considered to be hospital-acquired was 25...

In April 1998 an outbreak of gastroenteritis affected visitors, but none of the Aboriginal residents, at a Territory Health Services luncheon in a rural Aboriginal community in Central Australia. The epidemiological features and identification of Small Round Structured Virus (SRSV) from two participants suggest that this was an outbreak caused by a SRSV. The attack rate in the visitors who ate ...

In April 1998 an outbreak of salmonellosis amongst guests at a wedding feast was investigated. Of the 58 attendees interviewed 38 (66%) subsequently developed gastrointestinal symptoms. Stool cultures from 7 cases grew Salmonella Typhimurium RDNC A045. Food samples were culture-negative for Salmonella spp. A cohort study implicated spatchcock (RR 2.5, 95% CI 1.09-5.77) and scampi (RR 2.0, 95% C...