E. COLI EHEC - CANADA (03): (NOVA SCOTIA, NEW BRUNSWICK, ONTARIO)
O157, LETTUCE
******************************
A ProMED-mail post
<http://www.promedmail.org>
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
<http://www.isid.org>
Date: Sat 12 Jan 2013
Source: Canadian Broadcasting Corp [edited]
<http://www.cbc.ca/news/
The source of a potentially deadly strain of _E. coli_ [O157] in Nova
Scotia, New Brunswick and Ontario was likely lettuce served at
KFC/Taco Bell outlets, health officials say. All suspect lettuce has
been recalled, they said Friday afternoon, 11 Jan 2013.
"The evidence from our collaborative investigation leads us to believe
that the common food source was distributed to this fast-food
restaurant chain," said Dr. Frank Atherton, Nova Scotia's deputy chief
medical officer of health. "Lettuce has a limited shelf life, and we
have not seen a new case in more than a week. This tells us it is
highly unlikely the food item remains in the food chain. As an added
precaution, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is issuing a recall of
the lettuce products."
He added that the fault did not lie with the restaurants, but with
FreshPoint, the company that supplied the lettuce. No new cases of _E.
coli_ O157 are expected, officials said.
Nova Scotia has had 10 confirmed cases of _E. coli_ O157 in the past
couple of weeks. At least 5 are linked to the outbreak. New Brunswick
has also had 6 confirmed cases, while Ontario has had 5. All of the
patients have been treated and are recovering, Atherton said.
Dr. Eilish Cleary, New Brunswick's chief medical officer, said it was
hard to pin down the particular outlet. The lettuce was distributed to
other fast-food chains, but the cases were all linked to Taco
Bell/KFC. "When we looked at the food history of our patients, they
had eaten at several locations, so we were unable to pinpoint exactly
which ones they were exposed at," she said.
Sabir Sami, president of KFC/Taco Bell parent company Yum Restaurants,
said his company takes the developments seriously. "We're obviously
concerned, as this lettuce provided to us by FreshPoint has been
distributed to many area restaurants in Canada, including ours," he
said in a news release. "We have removed all the affected lettuce from
our restaurants in Canada and want to reassure our customers that our
food is perfectly safe to eat. The health and safety of our customers
is our top priority."
- --
Communicated by:
Stephen Rankin
<skrankin.sr@gmail.com>
