A multifocal outbreak of hepatitis A traced to commercially distributed lettuce.

Rosenblum, Lisa; Mirkin, Irene R.; Allen, D T; Safford, Sarah E. S.; Hadler, Stephen C.

doi:10.2105/ajph.80.9.1075

Cited by 186 publications

(64 citation statements)

References 12 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Vegetables, including different types of salads and green onions, have also been associated with viral hepatitis and gastroenteritis (3,12,20,35,42). Recently, a hepatitis A outbreak caused by the ingestion of contaminated green onions resulted in three deaths among a total of 601 cases (53).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Procedure for Rapid Concentration and Detection of Enteric Viruses from Berries and Vegetables

Butot

Putallaz

Sánchez

2007

Appl Environ Microbiol

158

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Several hepatitis A virus (HAV) and norovirus (NV) outbreaks due to consumption of berries and vegetables have been reported during recent years. To facilitate the detection of enteric viruses that may be present on different fresh and frozen products, we developed a rapid and sensitive detection method for HAV, NV, and rotavirus (RV). Initial experiments focused on optimizing the composition of the elution buffer, improving the viral concentration method, and evaluating the performance of various extraction kits. Viruses were extracted from the food surface by a direct elution method in a glycine-Tris (pH 9.5) buffer containing 1% beef extract and concentrated by ultrafiltration. Occasionally, PCR inhibitors were present in the processed berry samples, which gave relatively poor detection limits. However, this problem was overcome by adding a pectinase treatment in the protocol, which markedly improved the sensitivity of the method. After optimization, this concentration method was applied in combination with real-time reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) using specific primers in various types of berries and vegetables. The average detection limits were 1 50% tissue culture infective dose (TCID 50 ), 54 RT-PCR units, and 0.02 TCID 50 per 15 g of food for HAV, NV, and RV, respectively. Based on our results, it is concluded that this procedure is suitable to detect and quantify enteric viruses within 6 h and can be applied for surveillance of enteric viruses in fresh and frozen products.

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Procedure for Rapid Concentration and Detection of Enteric Viruses from Berries and Vegetables

Butot

Putallaz

Sánchez

2007

Appl Environ Microbiol

158

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Survival/growth in ice, fishery products and seawater HAV is a highly stable virus, able to persist for extended times in the environment (Abad et al, 1994a;Abad et al, 1994b;Sobsey et al, 1988) and its transmission by contaminated foods and drinking water has been demonstrated (Bosch et al, 1991;Dentinger et al, 2001;Pinto et al, 2009;Reid and Robinson, 1987;Rosemblum et al, 1990;Sanchez et al, 2002), although most cases seem to occur through person-to-person transmission. Foods of primary importance are those susceptible to be contaminated at the pre-harvest stage such as bivalve molluscs, particularly oysters, clams and mussels, salad crops, such as lettuce, green onions and other green leafy vegetables, and soft fruit, such as raspberries and strawberries.…”

Section: Hepatitis a Virusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scientific Opinion on the minimum hygiene criteria to be applied to clean seawater and on the public health risks and hygiene criteria for bottled seawater intended for domestic use

Publication¹

2012

EFS2

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Document VersionPublisher's PDF, also known as Version of record SUMMARYFollowing a request from the European Commission, the Panel on Biological Hazards (BIOHAZ) and the Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain (CONTAM) were asked deliver a scientific opinion on the minimum hygiene criteria to be applied to clean seawater and on the public health risks and hygiene criteria for bottled seawater intended for domestic use.European food legislation establishes the conditions for the use of clean seawater in land-based fishery establishments. Currently, the use of clean seawater is allowed for use in on-shore establishments, auctions and fish markets, for the handling and washing of fishery products, the production of ice for chilling fishery products and for rapid cooling of crustaceans and molluscs after their cooking. Nonetheless, there are no harmonised rules in the European legislation with regard to the sanitary criteria that clean seawater should respect.Based on incidents of food and waterborne infection, the properties and the distribution of the agents, microbiological hazards (including viruses, bacteria and parasites) have been associated with seawater. Poor quality sea water may consequently have a severe impact on public health through contamination which may occur during food processes. The hazards are associated either with bacteria, which are part of the natural marine biota (in particular Vibrio spp.), or pathogenic microbes derived from animal or human faecal contamination, which is most often of terrestrial origin. Nonetheless, there is currently not sufficient data on microbiological hazards to estimate the public health risks associated with the uses in on-land establishments for handling and washing fishery products, for the production of ice used for chilling, for rapid cooling of crustaceans and molluscs after cooking, and for bottled seawater. In the absence of data to propose risk-based criteria, hazard-based criteria are proposed instead. These should provide the same level of health protection as achieved by other food business operators through the use of potable water.It is underlined that coastal sources, used for abstraction of seawater in land-based establishments, cannot be guaranteed to be free from pathogens from the marine biota or from faecal contamination, and cannot be classified as a pristine source.Sanitary surveys provide information to optimize the site of abstraction in order to control sources of faecal pollution and chemical contamination. Additional safeguards will be needed to reduce contamination from endogenous marine flora (including pathogenic Vibrio spp. and C. botulinum). Since these hazards are associated with temperature and salinity (Vibrio spp.) as well as sediments (C. botulinum), abstracting seawater with high salinity (especially in waters of temperatures below 20 ºC), and free from particulate material will improve safety of seawater prior to treatment. The comprehensiveness of the sanitary survey, the stringency of microbiological criteria and the nee...

show abstract

“…Diseases other than those discussed previously also might need to be examined. Insect-and animal-borne diseases such as erhlichiosis (83) and Lyme disease (84) Foodborne diseases such as Salmonella enteritis (85), listeriosis (61) and Cyclospora infections (86) have come to be of sufficient concern in the United States that in 1994 the Centers for Disease Control instituted an active surveillance system (87). Warmer temperatures encourage the growth of many of these organisms.…”

Section: Next Stepsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public health consequences of global climate change in the United States--some regions may suffer disproportionately.

Longstreth¹

1999

Environ Health Perspect

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Current risk assessments of the likely regional health impacts of global climate change (GCC) are hindered by two factors. First, dose-response relationships between weather parameters and many of the likely health effects have not been developed, and second, reliable estimates of future regional climates across the United States are still beyond the scope of current modeling efforts. Consequently, probabilistic risk estimates of most of the likely regional health impacts of GCC have such a high degree of uncertainty that their usefulness to health officials dealing with regional issues is very limited. With the numerous pressures on today's health care systems, it is understandable that the possible consequences of GCC have received scant attention from regional health care decision makers. Indeed, the consensus among this community appears to be that any increases in health effects associated with GCC will be easily handled by the current health care system. However, such a position may be naive as the potential exists that an unequal distribution of such effects could overwhelm some regions, whereas others may feel little or no impact. This review of the likely regional impacts of GCC has been structured as a semianalytical look at this issue of distributional effects. Because of the lack of dose-response information and reliable estimates of future regional climates, however, it takes a historical perspective. That is, it assumes that the quality and quantity of health risks a region faces under GCC will be directly related to its recent history of health risks from warm weather/climaterelated diseases as well as to the size, characteristics, and distribution of the sensitive subpopulations currently residing within its borders. The approach is semiquantitative; however, it uses national data gathered on a regional level and as such should only be used to generate a hypothesis rather than test it. When applied to the United States, its outcome leads to the hypothesis that if indeed history repeats itself, some states or regions may be more greatly affected by GCC than others, not only because historically they are more prone to summer weather/climate-related diseases, but also because they contain a greater proportion of the sensitive subpopulations in the United States. -Environ Health Perspect 107(Suppl 1):1 69-179 (1999). http://ehpnetl.niehs.nih.gov/docs/1999/Suppl-1/169-1 79longstreth/abstracthtml

show abstract

A multifocal outbreak of hepatitis A traced to commercially distributed lettuce.

Cited by 186 publications

References 12 publications

Procedure for Rapid Concentration and Detection of Enteric Viruses from Berries and Vegetables

Procedure for Rapid Concentration and Detection of Enteric Viruses from Berries and Vegetables

Scientific Opinion on the minimum hygiene criteria to be applied to clean seawater and on the public health risks and hygiene criteria for bottled seawater intended for domestic use

Public health consequences of global climate change in the United States--some regions may suffer disproportionately.

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About