The state of Minnesota remains in a contentious budget standoff that could have serious implications for the nation’s food safety system. Minnesota’s Republican-controlled Legislature and Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democrat, have failed to agree on a budget, without agreement the state government will shut down July 1.
Why does Minnesota’s
Continue Reading 'Team D' Threatened in Minnesota Budget Standoff
The German E. coli outbreak is demonstrating the difficulty of identifying a “smoking gun” in outbreaks of foodborne illness.
Some are asking, “Where is the evidence?” By “evidence,” I believe they mean identifying the outbreak strain of bacteria in a food source that is genetically identical to clinical isolates by
Continue Reading It Takes Shoe Leather to Track the 'Smoking Gun'
An Oregon hazelnut packer recently refused to reveal his list of nut suppliers because, he said, health officials had not proved that hazelnuts were responsible for an outbreak of toxic E. coli.
Midwest health officials had used traditional interviews to determine that seven people had been sickened by hazelnuts
Seven sick people, most of them middle-aged men, scattered across three states. As epidemiology goes, that’s not much to go on.
To track outbreaks of foodborne illness, the “epi” sleuths usually need numerous sick people, preferably concentrated in one or two areas. Larger “clusters” of illnesses greatly improve the chance
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported yesterday that the number of state-level epidemiologists–who often serve as the frontline in detecting and tracking foodborne illness outbreaks–has decreased steadily since 2004 and has dropped 10 percent since 2006.
“The current condition of national epidemiology is a preparedness and public
