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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2004

Poisoned food, poisoned uniforms, and anthrax: or, how guerillas die in war.

Many people believe that Rhodesia, struggling to maintain minority rule in Africa, used chemical and biological weapons against African guerilla armies in the liberation war. Clothes and food were routinely poisoned, and Rhodesian agents, perhaps in concert with global forces of reaction, caused the largest single outbreak of anthrax in modern times. Oral interviews with traditional healers and Rhodesians' confessional memoirs of the war suggest that deaths by poisoning or disease were not so straightforward, that guerillas and healers and doctors struggled to understand not only what caused death but also what kind of death a poisoned uniform or poisoned boot was.

Africa↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Food, poisonous food.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Food Supply↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Clinical approach and management of food poisoning.

Food poisoning may occur in a group of people or a single person. The symptoms caused by food poisoning are varied from mild to severe or even fatal one such as death. Immunocompromised patients and others such as elderly and children are susceptible for food poisoning. Re-hydration is the main key in the management of food poisoning. Empirical therapy using antibiotics may be considered in high risk patients such as elderly, immunocompromised, diabetes, liver cirrhosis or intestinal hypomotility. Prevention is an important measure in management of food poisoning by keeping the food from contamination, always fresh and maintaining good hygiene.

Foodborne Diseases↗
PubMed1985

The use of a sandwich ELISA for the detection of staphylococcal enterotoxin A in foods from outbreaks of food poisoning.

Foods from outbreaks of food poisoning were examined for the presence of staphylococcal enterotoxin A (SEA) by a sandwich ELISA using microtitre trays as the solid phase and SEA antibodies raised in sheep. The presence of SEA was confirmed by neutralization tests. The toxin was detected in 12 of 15 foods from separate outbreaks of staphylococcal food poisoning; all 15 foods contained a strain of Staphylococcus aureus which produced SEA. For most foods a simple extraction procedure without a concentration step was sufficient to detect the toxin. The method was semi-quantitative and recoveries of SEA added to control foods varied from 30 to 80%. The foods from outbreaks contained between 1 and 10 micrograms of SEA/100 g. SEA was not found in foods from 21 outbreaks in which an SEA-producing strain of Staph. aureus was not isolated.

Disease Outbreaks↗
PubMed1997

Is it food poisoning?

Food borne infections and intoxications, typically manifesting as gastroenteritis, are a common community acquired illness in Australia. For infants, immunocompromised people, pregnant women and the elderly, food borne illness can be fatal. Food borne illness can be difficult to distinguish from illness transmitted by other routes, but specific pathogens, clinical syndromes, and epidemiological clues suggest possible 'food poisoning'. Management is usually supportive, but investigations provide information of public health value. Persons with gastroenteritis should be given simple advice to reduce the risk of transmitting infection to others, and educated about how enteric infections may be spread from infected persons and animals, and from food.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

A survey of bacterial toxins involved in food poisoning: a suggestion for bacterial food poisoning toxin nomenclature.

There is at present no accepted nomenclature for bacterial protein toxins, although there have been several attempts at dividing them into groups by their mode of action. In this paper we will not try to describe all known bacterial protein toxins, but concentrate on the toxins involved in food poisoning. Although most of these toxins are enterotoxins (protein exotoxins with the site of action on the mucosal cells of the intestinal tract) there are also other toxins involved in food poisoning, like the neurotoxins. In Table 1 the most important food pathogens in Europe are listed. For most, but not all, of these food pathogens, toxins are virulence factors. Generally, we divide food poisoning into infections and intoxications, where Salmonella spp. and Shigella spp. are typical examples of infections and Clostridium botulinum and Staphylococcus aureus for intoxications. We consider it better to make four different groups of food pathogenic bacteria, according to Table 2. Today the first three groups are all defined as infections, although for both group 2 and 3 the bacterium itself does not harm the host directly. The bacterium in such locations is like an 'enterotoxin factory'. The bacteria belonging to group 3 do not even interact with the epithelial cells in the intestine, while the bacteria of group 2 must colonise the epithelial cells prior to enterotoxin production.

Bacillaceae↗
PubMed2004

Use of novel PCR primers specific to the genes of staphylococcal enterotoxin G, H, I for the survey of Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from food-poisoning cases and food samples in Taiwan.

Data regarding the incidence of the newly found enterotoxigenic Staphylococcus aureus strains in food poisoning cases and in food samples were to date not available in Taiwan. In this study, PCR primers specific for the detection of SEG, H and I genes, i.e., seg, seh and sei, were used for the assay of 55 human isolates of S. aureus negative to the classical enterotoxins (SEA-->SEE) detection. These isolates were from the fecal specimens of the patients suffering from food poisoning outbreaks. Only eight strains were found to have the seg, seh and sei. The presence of other bacterial pathogens, such as Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Bacillus cereus and Salmonella spp. and perhaps, strains producing other new staphylococcal enterotoxins, in the fecal specimens of these patients, may account for these food poisoning cases. For 139 strains from food samples, such as frozen Chinese foods, Chinese sausages and lunch meals, sea strains accounted for the major portion and it seemed to be the most common SE type to coexist with seg, seh and sei. Only two strains had sec and none of them had seg, seh or sei. For strains without the classical SE genes, only 13 strains had seg, seh and/or sei. The above results imply that seg, seh and sei S. aureus strains play only a minor role in food-borne outbreaks in Taiwan.

DNA Primers↗
PubMed1995

Physiology of food poisoning microorganisms and the major problems in food poisoning control.

There remains considerable public concern regarding the current high level of food poisoning disease in Europe and the fact that, year by year, it continues to rise rather than fall. At the same time, there are strong and increasing demands from consumers for foods that are more convenient, fresher, more natural, less heavily processed (e.g. 'REPFEDS' and 'Sous Vide' foods, mildly heated and distributed at chill temperatures; Lund and Notermans, 1992), less heavily preserved (e.g. less acid, less salt, less sugar; Gould, 1995) and less reliant on additive preservatives than hitherto (e.g. sulphite, nitrite, organic acids and esters; Russell and Gould, 1991). Most of these trends result in a general reduction in the intrinsic preservation of foods. Furthermore, many food poisoning microorganisms escape the attention of preservation techniques altogether, reaching the consumer more or less directly from contaminated foods, most often foods of animal origin. It has therefore been argued that a substantial reduction in food poisoning in the near future will be difficult to achieve unless we obtain a greatly improved understanding of the physiology of the most important target organisms (Knochel and Gould, 1995). This knowledge must then be exploited in ways which effectively improve our means for the control of these hazards and reduce the risk to the consumer. A three year AAIR Concerted Action Programme (PL920630: 'Physiology of Food Poisoning Microorganisms') was therefore initiated in 1992 in order to bring together research groups working on the physiology and related aspects of food poisoning microorganisms. The principal objectives of the programme were: 1. To determine the physiological, biochemical and genetical bases of the organisms' survival of and responses to food-relevant stresses; 2. to determine the physiological and genetical factors influencing infectivity and toxinogenesis; 3. to understand the physiological bases of those synergistic systems that are already empirically applied or that have future potential; 4. to make a wide range of modern techniques in which particular members have expertise more widely available. As can be read in the subsequent contributions to this special issue, the area is a fruitful one for microbiological research and the Programme has been successful in bringing together disparate strands of the topic. It has also highlighted areas where this scientific knowledge may be better exploited in improving the microbiological safety of foods for the consumer.

Bacterial Physiological Phenomena↗
PubMed2002

Enterotoxigenic profiles of food-poisoning and food-borne Bacillus cereus strains.

The enterotoxigenic profiles of 51 B. cereus food-related strains were compared to those of 37 B. cereus food-poisoning strains. cytK and association of hbl-nhe-cytK enterotoxin genes were more frequent among diarrheal strains (73 and 63%) than among food-borne strains (37 and 33%). Unlike diarrheal strains, food-borne strains showed frequent nhe and hbl gene polymorphisms and were often low toxin producers.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

A hospital outbreak of Clostridium perfringens food poisoning--implications for food hygiene review in hospitals.

An outbreak of Clostridium perfringens (C. perfringens) food poisoning affected 17 of 44 (38.6%) patients interviewed on two hospital wards. A case-control study showed a statistically significant association between the consumption of roast pork and illness (P < 0.01). C. perfringens type A, untypable serotype, was isolated from samples of pre-cooked vacuum sealed pork supplied by a local meat producer. Faults were noted in the food production process at the factory. Cuts of meat were too large and equipment to ensure rapid cooling of cooked meat was not installed. Cost improvements taken by hospitals, such as the use of commercially cooked meat, may not be consistent with the highest standards of food safety. Amendments to the District Catering Policy were implemented to prevent further outbreaks.

Animals↗