Intestinal Disorders News

A supply of hydrolyzed vegetable protein from a Las Vegas company may have caused an outbreak of Salmonella Tennessee, according to an FDA press release.

The total cost of foodborne illnesses in the United States may be as much as $152 billion per year, according to a recent report from the Produce Safety Project at Georgetown University.

Officials with the Texas Department of State Health Services recalled oysters harvested from the San Antonio Bay between Nov. 16 to Nov. 26, after about a dozen reports of gastroenteritis among people who consumed the shellfish in three different states.

Enforcing simple hygiene strategies in childcare centers can help limit Shigellosis transmission and may combat growing antimicrobial-resistance patterns among these organisms, according to CDC and Missouri State Department of Health and Senior Services officials who investigated a Shigella sonnei outbreak that affected 693 people and spanned 44 licensed daycare facilities in northwest Missouri from May to October 2005.

Health officials emphasize the importance of WHO guidelines for preparing powdered infant formula and suggest improvements to the manufacturing process in a recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report after investigators identified Cronobacter spp. in two infants.

Survival outcomes in patients treated with minimally invasive endoscopic therapy were comparable with those treated with more complex surgical removal of all or part of the esophagus and may be a reasonable alternative for patients with mucosal esophageal adenocarcinoma.

Universal rotavirus vaccination may be effective in preventing as many as 1,700 incidences of severe diarrhea per 5,000 newborns, according to results of a recent study conducted in China.

Norovirus was the second most common agent implicated in acute sporadic episodes of gastroenteritis in children aged younger than 5 who required hospitalization for their illness, data collected between January 2005 and January 2008 at the Universitary Hospital in Albacete, Spain indicated.

CDC officials have confirmed 69 people from 29 states have been infected with Escherichia coli O157:H7, nine with hemolytic uremic syndrome. Meanwhile, FDA officials are testing to see if the illnesses are connected with an outbreak associated with Nestlé Toll House refrigerated cookie dough.

Nestle Toll House cookie dough contaminated with Escherichia coli 0157:H7 has made 66 people in 28 states sick since March.