On July 14, 2015, Meatingplace posted a high level analysis of the CDC’s latest report in its August edition of its Emerging Infectious Diseases journal, Volume 21, No. 8.

The report covers the period of 2003-2012 and looks at 390 outbreaks that caused 4,928 illnesses, 1,272 hospitalizations, 299 HUS cases and 33 deaths.

Of the 390 outbreaks (defined as 2 or more persons having culture-confirmed E. coli O157:H7 infections that were linked) 255 (65%) had transmission through food, 39 (10%) were person-to-person contact, 39 (10%) were related to contact with animals, and 15 (4%) had water contact. Forty two were from unknown origin.

As expected, the person-to-person contact was limited to day cares and all involved persons under five years of age; but unexpectedly, almost all water contact cases were in states bordering the Mississippi River.

Another interesting finding was that the illnesses were more severe, and led to more hospitalizations, when associated with foods eaten raw, like the lettuce, nuts and spinach categories.

While beef was linked in 78 outbreaks (20% of the total) and leafy vegetables were associated with 29 outbreaks (7%), hospitalizations for the leafy vegetables totaled 321 (35%) compared to hospitalizations for beef related outbreaks of just 316 (28%).

Of just the foodborne disease outbreaks, beef was implicated in 78 outbreaks (55%) while leafy vegetables were linked in 29 outbreaks (21%).

Of the types of beef (no surprise here) ground beef was associated with 54 outbreaks, 69% of all beef associated outbreaks. But steaks surprised me at 10 outbreaks for 14% of the beef total.

In all, 16 outbreaks were linked to dairy, with 13 (81%) being tied to unpasteurized milk and the other 3 to cheese made from unpasteurized milk. All totally preventable.

The saddest fact associated with the dairy linked outbreaks is that more than 25% of the illnesses were in children less than five years of age. What are their parents thinking?

Dairy used to represent 25% of all foodborne illnesses, but dropped to less than 1% with the advent of pasteurization. Now with the raw milk crazies it is back up to 5%.

Some good news for my readers around beef:

The percentage of foodborne E coli illnesses caused by beef dropped from 47% to 31%, and the percentage linked to ground beef decreased from 41% to 21%.

Now for a Douglas Craven moment:

For food related outbreaks, 90 were linked to restaurants and institutions, while only 60 were linked to good old home cooking.

The report was silent on this last factoid, and as long as I am asked how I want my hamburger cooked, I will continue to rant and rave and not eat burgers in restaurants unless it is a turkey, bison or vegetarian burger.

We are not in total control of our own destiny, and we are beholden to others to properly handle and cook our food.

A further look at the CDC’s dissection of its E coli O157 data

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