Coli

Gaithersburg-based IGEN International Inc. said yesterday that it has launched field studies of a test it has developed that can detect the presence of E. coli bacteria in meat and other food.The bacteria have been implicated as the cause of numerous outbreaks of gastrointestinal and renal diseases, including last summer's stomach illnesses from tainted meat processed at a Hudson Foods plant.IGEN, maker of a medical diagnostic device, said the U.S. Department of Agriculture and an unidentified food producer would participate in the study aimed at evaluating how sensitive the test is to the bacteria.

Parents of children who attend 14 Harford County public schools were warned by school officials Thursday night that their children may have eaten a pizza product that is subject to a voluntary recall because of possible E. coli bacteria contamination. The affected schools are 12 elementary schools around the county and two secondary schools. The school system said the product, Pepperoni Pizzatas, has been removed from its food inventory, along with all products by the same manufacturer, Rich Products Corp.

A toxic strain of E. coli bacteria has been ruled out as the cause of death last month of an 11-year-old Taneytown girl, a Carroll County health official said yesterday.That bacterium usually causes the symptoms exhibited by Kara L. Staley before her death, said Charles L. Zeleski, director of environmental health for the county Health Department.But he said, "about one-quarter of the time, it is something other than the E. coli, other than this organism."Kara died Sept. 24 at a Hershey, Pa., hospital of hemolytic uremic syndrome -- in which red blood cells are destroyed and the kidneys fail.

If you've stuck some ground beef in your freezer after Aug. 23, listen up. Tyson Fresh Meats Inc. of Emporia, Kan. is recalling more than 113,000 pounds of ground beef due to a possible E. coli contamination in Ohio, according to the USDA. The meat was shipped to distribution centers in twelve states, including Maryland and Delaware, in three-pound chubs, were produced on Aug. 23 and bore a label stating a "BEST BEFORE OR FREEZE BY" date of "SEP 12 2011". The retail distribution list for this meat will be posted on the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection service website.

North Harford Middle School has posted a warning and sent a note home to parents this week that its water tested positive Monday for E. coli and fecal coliform bacteria contamination. Black plastic bags were placed over school faucets, and children were encouraged to drink bottled water and clean their hands at hand-washing stations, said the school's PTSA treasurer, Lisa Breece. It was not clear whether any children had become ill from the water. One of the school's vice principals referred questions to a county spokesman, who could not be reached last night.

A vaccine to prevent urinary tract infections has proved successful in mice and holds promise for people, researchers report today in the journal Science. The advance is also expected to lead to vaccines for other common infections.The new vaccine, developed by a team from Washington University in St. Louis and Medimmune, a private company in Gaithersburg, Md., must still be tested in humans and so will not be available for at least five years. But other scientists called it the most important advance in more than 20 years of efforts to make a vaccine for urinary infections.

SALINAS, Calif. -- Packaged spinach salad continued to disappear from food store shelves across the country yesterday as government researchers pressed on with a complicated search for the source of bacterial contamination that has sickened more than 100 people in 20 states and caused one death. Officials said yesterday that the number of people affected by the E. coli outbreak now stood at 102, up from 94 the day before. Officials at the Food and Drug Administration announced Friday that they detected an "epidemiological link" between the outbreak of infections of E. coli 0157:H7 and spinach produced by Natural Selection Foods, a company that grows and packages fresh greens in San Juan Bautista, Calif.

HAGERSTOWN -- Until three weeks ago, the last time June E. Dunning had been in the hospital was in 1951, when she gave birth to her daughter, Corinne. That changed Sept. 2 after Dunning, 86, ate spinach from a bag and became severely ill. She entered a hospital for the first time in her daughter's memory. She died battling an E. coli infection 11 days later. Yesterday, standing in the living room of the Hagerstown house she shared with her mother, Corinne Swartz said that while evidence might never prove conclusively that Dunning was killed by the strain of bacteria that has sickened people nationwide in recent weeks, her family believes that her death was caused by eating contaminated spinach.

An Ellicott City family is suing two top Howard County officials, claiming that their three children became sick from deadly E. coli bacteria because the county failed to properly maintain its sewer lines, allowing waste to leak into a nearby stream. Although county health officials later said the Plumtree streambed was an unlikely source of the bacteria, Michael and Lisa Thompson contend in their lawsuit that a raw sewage leak contaminated the water near their home and made their children sick three years ago. The Thompsons are suing County Executive James N. Robey and Public Works Director James M. Irvin, claiming public and private nuisance and negligence.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton announced yesterday the most sweeping changes in the government's meat inspection system since it was created nearly a century ago, outlining new rules that would, for the first time, impose scientific tests for disease-causing bacteria.The new rules call for more inspection and controls by the meat- and poultry-processing industry itself and new testing by the Department of Agriculture.Drafted over the past two years, the rules will be final upon their publication in the Federal Register this week.

Within days of the E.coli outbreak in Germany that officially ended this week, scientists at the University of Maryland Institute for Genome Sciences began cracking the genomic code of the bacteria responsible for infecting thousands and killing dozens. Information about all the genes that make up the bacteria from these scientists and others around the globe was soon offered online at no cost to doctors treating those infected, possibly saving lives, as well as to epidemiologists looking for the source of the pathogen.

With the Fourth of July approaching, many people are contemplating cookouts and picnics. But all that celebratory food and drink can pose a threat to your health. There are steps to take to ensure there aren't any unwelcome fireworks in your belly, according to Dr. Niraj Jani, division chief in gastroenterology at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. What is the appropriate time that meat/poultry should be cooked to prevent illness? The cooking time depends on the type, cut of meat and the method of cooking used.

The deadly outbreak of E. coli in Germany that has taken 22 lives and sickened some 2,200 is a reminder both of how vulnerable we can be to food-borne illness and how important it is to have a strong food safety system. American health officials report that so far there is no evidence that the rare strain of E. coli found in Germany has entered the United States food system. E. coli can be found in human and animal feces, and it spreads to vegetables via animal waste in fields and irrigation water, or from farm workers' poor hand-washing.

If you have plans to visit Germany soon - or if you traveled there recently - you might want to pay attention to a recent outbreak of E.coli infection that has sickened scores of people , many of whom live in Germany or visited that country recently. So far, there have been more than a dozen deaths and more than 1,000 people sickened. Two Americans are believed to have contracted the virulent illness after returning home from traveling in Germany. Both have been hospitalized with serious medical issues, according to reports.

While Maryland state lawmakers consider instituting a five-cent fee on plastic bags, you should consider this: Those polypropylene bags that will replace them are likely to bring dangerous bacteria like E. coli in contact with your food. ( "The (occasional) virtues of nickel-and-diming," Feb. 8). According to a recent survey from Opinion Research Corporation, more than half of the people who do their grocery shopping with reusable bags have never washed them. This is despite the fact that a recent study from the University of Arizona found that more than half of the bags they tested came up positive for coliform, while 11 percent tested positive for E. coli.

Boubacar Coly, Morgan State's 6-foot-9 defensive enforcer, will forgo his last year of NCAA eligibility to pursue a pro basketball career, Bears coach Todd Bozeman said this week. Coly, who played this season as a 24-year-old graduate student, leaves as reigning Defensive Player of the Year in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. He led the MEAC in rebounds (10.9 per game) and blocked shots (84). A native of Senegal, Coly transferred from Xavier University, where he played in only a handful of games while undergoing two knee surgeries.

Maryland health officials confirmed yesterday that two more people in the state were sickened by eating spinach contaminated with E. coli during a recent nationwide outbreak, bringing the number of cases in the state to five. Since an alert Sept. 14 prompted grocers to pull potentially tainted bagged spinach from store shelves and consumers were told to discard any bagged spinach, state officials have investigated 15 cases of possible E. coli contamination of spinach. They have found that five of those cases are associated with spinach contamination; eight are not and two are pending, said John Hammond, a spokesman for the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

If you've stuck some ground beef in your freezer after Aug. 23, listen up. Tyson Fresh Meats Inc. of Emporia, Kan. is recalling more than 113,000 pounds of ground beef due to a possible E. coli contamination in Ohio, according to the USDA. The meat was shipped to distribution centers in twelve states, including Maryland and Delaware, in three-pound chubs, were produced on Aug. 23 and bore a label stating a "BEST BEFORE OR FREEZE BY" date of "SEP 12 2011". The retail distribution list for this meat will be posted on the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection service website.

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Boubacar Coly, Morgan State's 6-foot-9 enforcer who almost never uses his feet to get to the basket, roared down the lane last night for a thunderous dunk that restored order in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament and much-needed energy to the struggling Bears. Coly's unlikely improvisation gave No. 1-seeded Morgan its first lead of the night with 11 minutes left in the second half of a semifinal matchup with Delaware State. More important, it ignited a furious stretch run that carried the Bears to a 61-55 victory and into their first MEAC championship game in 30 years.

He devoted much of his childhood in Africa either to playing sports or watching television, but Boubacar Coly can speak eight languages with ease. He is Muslim by faith but attended Catholic schools much of his life and even a Catholic university for a time. He grew up on a continent where soccer is king, but his heart led him to basketball and the United States. Incongruous as those facts seem, they are mere snapshots of a young man who forged a life in the United States when everyone back in Ziguinchor, Senegal, told him not to leave seven years ago. Factor in three major knee surgeries, two lost seasons of college basketball, a new wife and a reinvigorated career at Morgan State, and it still doesn't cover the journey Coly has taken.