Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part series about food allergies and the efforts by public health agencies, schools, legislators and parents to make it easier and safer for allergic individuals to manage risks. A chronic disease with no known cure. An emerging epidemic that affects up to 15 million people in the… Continue Reading
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Exactly 24 years ago today my 16-month-old son Riley died from E.coli/HUS during the 1993 “Jack in the Box” outbreak. He was the last of the four young children who paid the ultimate price for failures in food safety protocols at that time. The landmark outbreak is often referred to as the 9/11 of the… Continue Reading
“I don’t know where to stick her; she doesn’t have any veins left.” That’s a medical specialist talking as she examined 3-year-old Jubilee Combs, a patient at a Kentucky hospital undergoing dialysis for a severe kidney disease acquired from drinking unpasteurized raw milk. That was two years ago while the little girl was being treated… Continue Reading
Almost 5 years old now, Kendall Paciorek is right on track. She can walk, run, talk and say her ABCs. And while that normal progression of abilities common to many children her age might not seem all that impressive, to her mother and father Michelle Wakley-Paciorek and Dave Paciorek, it’s “a miracle.” Little Kendall was… Continue Reading
Suzanne Kiner, food safety advocate and mother of one of the child victims of the infamous 1993 Jack in The Box E. coli outbreak, died Jan. 5, 2016, at age 67. Kiner’s daughter Brianne was 9 years old in 1993 when she contracted what developed into a life-threatening infection from E. coli in a fast food hamburger…. Continue Reading
Back in October 2010, Chris and Heather Gage were 120 miles away from their home in Bridgeport, NE, and decided to dine at the Old Country Buffet in Cheyenne, WY. Chris Gage was medically compromised going into the restaurant, but when he left, he was infected with Salmonella bacteria, which left him forever damaged. Gage’s reaction… Continue Reading
Oct. 9 update: A state epidemiologist with the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday that the two boys who became ill after visiting a petting zoo last month were both infected by E. coli O111. “The strain and molecular typing from each patient was identical, making it highly likely that the cases acquired the… Continue Reading
Open government consultant and food safety advocate Sarah Schacht sat down with Food Safety News at the 2015 Food Safety Summit in Baltimore, MD, last month to talk about how data from restaurant inspections can help improve public health. Schacht is a two-time E. coli survivor who has been spearheading efforts in Seattle’s King County to improve… Continue Reading
Darin Detwiler, adjunct faculty at Northeastern University and Senior Policy Coordinator at STOP Foodborne Illness, sat down with Food Safety News at the 2015 Food Safety Summit in Baltimore, MD, last month to discuss food safety from a consumer perspective. Detwiler’s son, Riley, was one of four children who died in the 1993 Jack in… Continue Reading
It’s been nearly a year since her daughter, Olivia, 3, passed away from complications relating to an E. coli infection, and Haley Cruz wants something positive to come from the tragedy. Along with a bakery in Van Alstyne, TX, named after her daughter, Sweet Olivia’s Bake Shoppe, Cruz has started a special project to help… Continue Reading