April 2006

April 27, 2006
The Brunswick News (Ga.)
Lauren McCallister
The Glynn County school system is warning parents of pre-kindergarten children at the Family and Children’s Education Services center to be on the lookout for symptoms of shigellosis, an infectious disease that’s treatable with antibiotics.
Students carried letters home with them Wednesday from the school advising parents that there have been reported cases of shigellosis at FACES.
Health officials said there have been at least two confirmed cases.
Shigellosis is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Shigella. It is caused by contaminated food, water or improper hand washing.Continue Reading Illnesses hit preschool

Frequent and careful hand washing with soap and water should be done by both the ill individual and anyone who is in contact with that person. Supervised hand washing of all children should be followed in day care centers and as soon as children return home. Young children with a Shigella infection, or with diarrhea…

Up to 3% of persons infected with Shigella may later develop a syndrome that includes joint pain and swelling, irritation of the eyes, and sometimes painful urination. This is a reaction to the previous gastroenteritis and is called ìreactive arthritisî or Reiterís Syndrome. Basically, the immune system, intending to fight Shigella, attacks the bodyís cells.…

A culture of an infected personís stool sample can identify the Shigella bacteria. The laboratory can also do special tests to tell which species of Shigella the person has and which antibiotics would be best to treat it.
Although shigellosis is usually a self-limited illness, antibiotics can shorten the course, and in the most serious…

Most people who are infected with Shigella develop diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps. Severity of the disease ranges from mild to very severe diarrhea. Diarrhea is bloody 25-50% of the time and most often contains mucus. Rectal spasms are common. The illness starts 12 hours to 6 days, usually 1 to 2 days, after exposure…

Shigella is a bacterium that can cause sudden and severe diarrhea (gastroenteritis) in humans. Shigellosis is the name of the disease that Shigella causes. The illness is also known as “bacillary dysentery.” Shigella bacteria can infect the intestinal tract after the ingestion of relatively few organisms. This is why shigellosis is the most communicable of…

Apr 13, 2006 (CIDRAP News) – The incidence of most major foodborne diseases in 2005 changed little from the previous year and generally continued a slow decline from levels measured in the late 1990s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
As in past years, Salmonella infections were the most common foodborne…

Bill Marler is the managing partner in the law firm Marler Clark L.L.P., P.S. Since 1993, Bill has represented thousands of victims of E. coli, Salmonella, Hepatitis A, Listeria, Shigella, Campylobacter and Norovirus illnesses in over thirty states. As a trial lawyer, Bill has been involved in several cases of national importance. He represented Brianne…

Press Release
Source: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
Tuesday April 11, 8:01 am ET
NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–April 11, 2006–The prevention and control of foodborne infections in the U.S. has improved significantly since the initiation of PulseNet, a nationwide program that enables the rapid analysis and comparison of DNA “fingerprints” of foodborne pathogens, as described in a series of reports in the Spring 2006 Special Issue (Volume 3, Number 1) of Foodborne Pathogens and Disease, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The issue is available free online at www.liebertpub.com/fpd.
PulseNet is a national network of public health and food regulatory agency laboratories, coordinated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The network performs standardized molecular subtyping (or DNA fingerprinting) of foodborne disease-causing bacteria using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). PFGE is a sensitive means of separating DNA and detecting patterns, or fingerprints that can be stored in a database and rapidly searched to distinguish between strains of disease-causing organisms, such as Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella, Shigella, Listeria, and Campylobacter.
PulseNet is transforming public health and surveillance efforts to detect and investigate outbreaks of foodborne infection, identify the causative agent, and institute control and containment measures at an earlier stage. This interactive network and national database allows public health officials to track and compare outbreaks in multiple states or regions and to determine whether they represent a single large, but dispersed, outbreak and to trace the source of the pathogen.Continue Reading Success of CDC’s PulseNet Program for ‘Fingerprinting’ Disease-Causing Bacteria in Food Is Described in a Special Issue of Foodborne Pathogens and Disease

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Millions of germs writhe around and inside us at all times, and while 99 percent are harmless or beneficial to humans, pathogenic ones can in the worst case be fatal. A germ splits every 10 minutes: that makes four in 20 minutes, 64 in an hour and 16 million in four hours. Normally they coexist with people in peace, but then for one reason or another they suddenly attack. Here is a beginnerís guide for guarding against rogues.Continue Reading Living With Germs