Why can't they pinpoint the cause of salmonella outbreak??

I don't get it. With today's technology and CSI bullshit, not to mention anti-terror gizmos, how come they still haven't found the cause of the current salmonella outbreak?

How about old fashioned detective work, like asking the 900 infected people: What did you eat in the last 48 hours? Then just figure out what was that everybody ate...

 

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hey so many stores stopped selling tomatoes everywhere...even the Subway...its getting scary

 

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Syzygys most food poisioing is from cross contamination. The thing that actually HAS the selmonalla may not even be eaten. Then there are the chances of muliple contaminate sources.

Epidemology isnt as easy as a symple police investigation. With a police investigation for say murder the suspect is ALWAYS the same suspect. With a diease outbreak there could be HUNDREDS of different colpurets. For instance i handle raw chicken and dont wash my hands then i touch someone else and they touch something like a chopping board, the bacteria grow on that and then some tomatoes get cut on it. As it was only veg the board gets a quick wipe to get rid of the juice and something else gets cut on it. You now have 3 known sources, the initial chicken, the tomatoes and whatever else was cut on the board, not to mention anything ELSE i touch before thouraly washing my hands, any other equiptment and people i contact with. These sources could be km's away from each other by the time that someone starts back tracing

Manigiococal is much easier to trace because it spreads so quickly and its incubation period is so short so that the outbreak can be quickly contained.

 

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I understand that it is not easy, but is it really this hard? Imagine if terrorists released something into the foodchain, I guess we would be just out of luck...

 

we are not Gods...and science is not exactly CSI

 

not nessarly, i cant speak for how the CDC works but the health departments in australia are probably even better than the police at tracking down culprets

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. Sometimes it can be easy for instance a manigococal out break or even legonares disease where they already know the likly suspect, sometimes its not so easy. To be honest i have seen more success from the health department tracking diease outbreaks than the police tracking food contamination. Its not an easy job by any streach though, you have to trace it back as far as the link will go and then you could have to switch 5 or 6 times or even more to find the initial source. Then there is the possability of muliple sources.

Not all food posioing comes from the restraunt or shop that you bought the food from.

 

I am not too thrilled with the U.S. C.D.C. because they don't even track the number of C.J.D. cases in the U.S. and a neighbor friend of mine died from it. We have some good science mostly however, and this outbreak likely is an F.D.A. matter to investigate. I'm quite sure that tomatoes have now been ruled out as the causative factor. We have had no positive salmonella tests in my laboratory.

 

I like tomatoes.

I look forward to my garden tomatoes! (and until harvest time, I just gotta buy em from the store)

The FDA should track this down if it can.

And you should weigh in the health benefits from eating tomatoes before you decide not to go and eat some because 757 out of 301,139,947 Americans died of it. Tomatoes will keep you alive looooooooooong before they kill you!

The chances currently are rated at: 1 in 397,807 Americans have gotten Salmonella from this hypothesized tomato source.

I'd suggest eating less sugar and more tomatoes if you are truly concerned about your health. (and perhaps take a few drivers safety classes)

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I don't think 700+ people died. They just got sick...

 

I believe your correct. If Salmonella was deadly...Taco Bell would be a mass murderer.

 

That's TOTALLY incorrect. The number you quoted is something close to the number of reported cases. As of the last report I read, only ONE had died.

You should be much, much more careful in your "reporting."

 

The problem is that you do not understand how a salmonella infection can be spread.

Vegetables have a long route to travel before reaching the ultimate consumer. The bacteria can originate on the farm (using animal manure or from wild animals getting into the fields), by the farm hands picking the crop, by the people grading them before they are packed, by various conveyor belts and more.

Just a single person working on the grading line who failed to wash their hands after using the bathroom could deposit bacteria on THOUSANDS of individual vegetables - and those could easily wind up being distributed across many states.

And by the time the investigators have arrived, the evidence is LONG gone. The wild animals were chased away or killed, the picking crew has moved to harvesting peppers 100 miles away, the conveyer belt has been washed or the one individual who was grading now washes his/her hands better.

Do you see now?

 

Yes. Still let's suppose it is a weaponized salmonella and it can be sprayed on foods. Basicly there is no chance of catching the person spraying it, except by luck.

This morning there were another suspect veggies in the lineup of salmonella crimes. This time they are:Raw jalapeños, serranos and cilantro

 

depends where it happens. In the case of the women who contaminated food at woolworths (i think it was) in 2 states it was the security camera's IN the various stores that got her caught.

If it was to happen covertly on a farm somewhere your right there is little chance. After all the contamination doesnt have to be direct. If someone put a bacteria in a farmers car THEY could well do the work of spreeding it themselves, contaiminate the water surplie that is used for irigation and THOUSANDS of farms could be effected. This is not a bullet in someones head after all.

Hell look at the projections for pandemic flu, look at the epidiomolical data from SARS. In the case of SARS it was ONE doctor who stayed in one hotel that ended up spreading it world wide

 

How did the Woolworth Women do that?

 

What is a weaponized bacterium?

 

I think weaponized in this regard means that it is easily transportable and spreadable/spayable to common food, place or anywhere where it can come into contacts with humans...

 

Diode-Man how did she do what?

 

the way we work this kmguru is that health inspectors are council staff and are responcable for random checking of ALL food producers and sellers in there area. If they detect a problem it goes to the state health departments who do the epidemological work and work with the police to find the source or person.

Thats why you are STRONGLY encoraged to report ALL food posioning to both the place where you bought the food and to the health department, mostly the food source will be inocent and they SHOULD take every ingrediant from that dish, put it into a container and freeze it with "not for use, bio hazard" writen on it. The food inspectors can then take this and sample it to trace the source